The Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale was a private, Paris-chartered institution that held the note-issuing monopoly across French West Africa — not a colonial government body, which meant its paper circulated across an enormous and administratively fragmented territory spanning eight federating territories. The Banque de France printed this series under wartime and immediate postwar conditions, which affected paper quality and supply consistency across the issue span.
Hourriez and Chapon were both career Banque de France engravers who worked across numerous colonial issues of the period. Laurent's design credit places this firmly within the professional illustration stable that the Banque de France maintained specifically for overseas currency work.
The Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale was a private, Paris-chartered institution that held the note-issuing monopoly across French West Africa — not a colonial government body, which meant its paper circulated across an enormous and administratively fragmented territory spanning eight federating territories. The Banque de France printed this series under wartime and immediate postwar conditions, which affected paper quality and supply consistency across the issue span.
Hourriez and Chapon were both career Banque de France engravers who worked across numerous colonial issues of the period. Laurent's design credit places this firmly within the professional illustration stable that the Banque de France maintained specifically for overseas currency work.