200 Francs - Montesquieu type 1981 uniface

The Montesquieu 200 Francs was the first note of that denomination ever issued by the Banque de France — the 200 Franc value had no prior history in French paper currency, introduced here partly to reduce pressure on the heavily circulated 100 Franc series. Lambert and Jubert had collaborated on earlier French issues, and the intaglio work on this note is among the more technically demanding of the period, with fine screen gradients that counterfeiters consistently failed to replicate cleanly.

The "uniface" designation in the trade refers to a small number of imperfectly printed sheets that escaped quality control with one side unprinted — not an official variety, but documented and collected. The series ran a full decade before being replaced by the Condorcet 200 Francs in 1995.