Catalog
25 Francs
| Issuer | Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale |
|---|---|
| Year | 1943-1954 |
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| Value | 25 Francs |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Central vignette with a bust of an African man at left and the head of a buffalo at right, set against a tinted underprint with guilloche patterning. The bank title and denomination numerals are inscribed across the upper register, with engraver's credits at the lower margin. |
| Reverse lettering | BANQUE DE L'AFRIQUE OCCIDENTALE 25 SÉB. LAURENT FEC. G. REGNIER SC. |
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| Comments |
The Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale served as the note-issuing authority across French West Africa from 1901 until its dissolution in 1962, operating as a private commercial bank with a state-granted monopoly — an arrangement that attracted sustained political criticism both in Paris and across the territories it served. This particular issue spans a date range that crosses the Liberation and the early years of the Fourth Republic, meaning notes from the early part of the run were circulating in colonies whose political status was actively contested and soon to be reshaped by the 1946 Loi Lamine Guèye.
Chapon and Régnier were both accomplished intaglio engravers working within the Banque de France's highly disciplined atelier tradition — the pairing of separate obverse and reverse engravers on a single note was standard French practice, not an exception.