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25 Francs
| Issuer | Banque de la Martinique |
|---|---|
| Year | 1943-1945 |
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| Currency | Franc (1855-1960) |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on yellow guilloche underprint. A seated female allegorical figure with tropical fruit is positioned at right, rendered in fine engraved detail. Three signature varieties are known for this issue, with the bank name and statutory anti-counterfeiting warning inscription running across the face. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANQUE DE LA MARTINIQUE L`ARTICLE 139 DU CODE PÉNAL PUNIT DES TRAVAUX FORCÉS À PERPÉTUITÉ LE CONTREFACTEUR VINGT CINQ FRANCS 25 E.A. WRIGHT BANK NOTE CO. PHILA (Translation: Bank of Martinique Article 139 of the Penal Code punishes with forced labor in perpetuity the counterfeiter. Twenty-Five Francs) |
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| Comments |
The Banque de la Martinique's wartime issues are a direct consequence of the Allied blockade of Vichy-controlled Martinique. After Admiral Robert's administration was effectively cut off from metropolitan France and then from normal currency supply chains, the island faced a genuine shortage of circulating paper. Notes in this series were printed in Philadelphia precisely because Free French and Allied logistical networks could reach American printers when European ones could not.
E. A. Wright was primarily a securities and commercial engraving house — not a specialist currency printer in the De La Rue or American Bank Note Company sense — which occasionally shows in the execution of this series.