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20 Piastres
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indochine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1928-1931 |
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| Designer(s) | Sébastien Laurent |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Central vignette presents a Khmer statue, rendered in intaglio, flanked by ornamental guilloche borders. The denomination and bank name appear in both French and Vietnamese scripts, with the designer and engraver credits noted in the lower margin. |
| Reverse lettering | BANQUE DE L'INDOCHINE HAI CHUC BAC 20 SEB. LAURENT DEL. RITA SC. |
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| Comments |
The Banque de l'Indochine's 20 Piastres series of this period occupied an awkward administrative position — the bank held a dual role as both a commercial institution and the colonial monetary authority, issuing currency across French Indochina, French India, and the New Hebrides under a single concession. Printing was handled by the Banque de France's own workshops in Paris, the same facility producing French metropolitan notes, which accounts for the engraving quality being considerably above what most colonial issues of the period received.
Marguerite Dreyfus, known professionally as Rita, was among the more accomplished intaglio engravers working at the Banque de France in the interwar years — her name appears on several French colonial issues from this period.