Catalog
25 Francs Duala
| Issuer | Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920-1923 |
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| Printer | Banque de France, France |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANQUE DE L'AFRIQUE OCCIDENTALE VINGT-CINQ FRANCS PAYABLES EN ESPÈCES, A VUE, AU PORTEUR DUALA h.Bellery Desfontaines del. ERNEST ET FREDERIC FLORIAN SC. |
| Reverse description | The reverse is entirely printed in Arabic script on a pale ground, with the denomination, payability clause, and bank name rendered in Arabic lettering arranged in horizontal registers. An ornamental geometric border frames the composition, with diamond and lozenge motifs at the corners and a central hexagonal reserve cartouche matching the obverse. The engraver's signature Georges DUVAL appears in the lower left margin. |
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| Comments |
The Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale, despite its name, held the note-issuing concession for French Equatorial Africa as well as French West Africa — a jurisdictional oddity that persisted for decades. This 25 Francs note was payable at Duala, the principal port of Cameroun, which France had administered under a League of Nations mandate only since 1916, following the Anglo-French partition of the former German colony of Kamerun.
Bellery-Desfontaines was primarily known as a poster and decorative artist; his involvement in banknote design was relatively unusual for his career. The Florian brothers — Frédéric and Ernest-Théophile — handled engraving for the Banque de France across multiple colonial series during this period, and their work on this plate is consistent with that output.
The Duala payability designation makes this a geographically specific variant within what was otherwise a shared colonial plate design.