Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
25 Francs
| Issuer | Banque de la Guadeloupe |
|---|---|
| Year | 1934-1944 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | A central intaglio vignette presents a classically robed female figure wearing a floral wreath, set against an ornate lower border composed of tropical fruit and foliage. Two signature varieties are known for the issue. The full anti-counterfeiting warning under Article 139 of the Penal Code is inscribed along the lower margin, accompanied by the engraver's and designer's credits. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | An engraved multicolor tropical landscape vignette, executed by Hourriez after Serveau, shows a steam vessel moored at left amid dense Caribbean vegetation of palms and broad-leafed plants, opening onto a tranquil bay with distant mountains. The denomination numeral "25" appears in blue within a decorative arched cartouche at upper right, with "VINGT CINQ FRANCS" lettered beneath it. The issuer's title is contained within a ruled panel along the lower margin. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Banque de la Guadeloupe was not a central bank in any modern sense — it held a colonial privilege granted under French law, issuing currency for Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana simultaneously under near-identical series. This note was produced at the Banque de France's own workshops, an arrangement that gave the colonial issues the same technical quality as metropolitan French paper while keeping them firmly under Parisian oversight.
Clément Serveau was a serious choice — a painter and printmaker with genuine standing in interwar French graphic arts, not a house illustrator. Jules Piel engraved the obverse; Georges Hourriez handled the reverse, a division of labor standard at the Banque de France atelier but worth noting for attribution purposes.
The date range spans the entire Vichy and Free French transition, meaning notes of this type circulated under two radically different administrations without design alteration.