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5 Centimes
| Issuer | Gouvernement Général de l'Afrique Occidentale Française - Colonie de la Guinée Française |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Franc (1915-1925) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Orange cardboard with a green postage stamp affixed at centre, bearing the Guinea colonial vignette engraved by J. Puyplat after a design by De La Nézière. A black letterpress overprint reads VALEUR D'ECHANGE across the face, with issuing authority inscriptions printed in the surrounding field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain orange-tan cardboard with the denomination value in bold black letterpress type at centre, enclosed within a vertical oval ornamental frame composed of symmetrical scrollwork and foliate flourishes. |
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| Comments |
French Guinea's 1920 emergency cardboard issues emerged from a coin shortage that plagued the entire AOF federation after World War One — metropolitan France had too little small coinage to supply its West African territories, so individual colonies briefly issued their own low-denomination cardboard tokens as substitutes. Guinea's series was among the more short-lived of these, replaced quickly once fractional coinage supplies normalized.
De La Nézière was a painter and illustrator with deep personal ties to North and West Africa, which explains his assignment to several AOF colonial issues. Puyplat was a prolific engraver for the French state printing works. The cardboard substrate makes survival in collectible condition genuinely difficult — these were handled daily as small change.