20 Piastres

Printed locally in Hanoi because the Japanese occupation severed access to metropolitan French printers, this series was produced entirely within Indochina under conditions that forced the Banque de l'Indochine to rely on the Imprimerie d'Extrême-Orient — a facility never intended for high-security currency work. The result is noticeably cruder than pre-war issues printed in France.

Trần Tấn Lộc, responsible for both design and engraving, was among the rare Vietnamese artists working at that technical level within the colonial printing establishment. The occupation period compressed the entire production chain into a single compromised location, and notes from this run circulated under two successive authorities: Vichy-aligned French colonial administration and, after March 1945, direct Japanese control following the coup de force that dismantled French governance overnight.