Catalog
25 Francs
| Issuer | Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale |
|---|---|
| Year | 1943 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette shows a turbaned North African man in profile to the right, with a bridled horse's head occupying the left side of the note. To the right, a large overprinted stamp reads 'FEZZAN' within an oval cartouche, accompanied by the initials 'RF'. The denomination '25' appears in the upper corners, with the issuing bank name and engraver credits along the lower border. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A large male lion is rendered in intaglio, seated in three-quarter view against a rocky desert landscape with distant mesas. The denomination '25' appears in the upper left corner, with a decorative guilloche frame panel to the left. A legal warning inscription in French runs along the lower portion of the note. |
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| Comments |
The Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale occupied an unusual position during the Second World War — as a private concessionary bank rather than a state institution, it continued issuing currency across French West Africa through both the Vichy and Free French periods, sometimes with the same plate designs serving politically opposite administrations. The 1943 date places this note squarely in the transitional phase after the Allied landings in North Africa, when French West Africa had shifted allegiance from Vichy to the Free French under Giraud.
The "M" prefix in the Pick classification denotes the military issue designation applied retrospectively by cataloguers — the note circulated in the same territories as the standard civilian series but under wartime supply and distribution conditions that were anything but routine.