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20 Francs - Emile Gentil
| Issuer | Caisse Centrale de la France d'Outre-Mer |
|---|---|
| Year | 1950-1960 |
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| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Obverse: Joseph Broutin Reverse: Magd. Tison |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Brown and multicolour intaglio composition centred on a standing male figure holding a staff, with a second seated figure in the middle ground against a riverine landscape with distant hills. Geometric patterned borders in brown frame both lateral edges, and denomination numeral "20" appears at upper left and right. The anti-counterfeiting legal warning is set in a framed panel at lower right, with designer and engraver credits at the lower corners. |
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
The Caisse Centrale de la France d'Outre-Mer was not a colonial central bank in the conventional sense — it was a Paris-controlled financing institution established in 1944 to manage currency and credit across French overseas territories, replacing the older colonial banks that had issued their own notes. This 20 Francs note circulated across multiple territories under the same series, with the destination determined by overprint rather than a separate printing run.
Broutin and Tison were both staff engravers at the Banque de France's Note Printing Works, and Emile Gentil — the French explorer and administrator who helped consolidate French control over the Chad basin in the 1890s — was still considered an acceptable figurehead for colonial currency well into the 1950s.