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5 Francs
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indochine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1944 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Francs |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in blue and presents a central vignette of a classical female allegory, laureate and draped, holding a small statuette, set within an arched architectural frame flanked by decorative pilasters. The bank title BANQUE DE L'INDOCHINE runs along the top border, with the denomination CINQ FRANCS along the bottom, while the anti-counterfeiting legal warning from Article 139 of the Penal Code appears at the upper left. Two manuscript signatures — those of the Director of the Branch and a fondé de pouvoir — appear at the upper right alongside the serial number and the place name NOUMÉA. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | BANQUE DE L'INDOCHINE CINQ 5 FRANCS CINQ 5 FRANCS NOUMÉA |
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| Comments |
Banque de l'Indochine's wartime issues present a genuinely complicated printing history, and this note is one of the stranger chapters in it. With Japanese forces occupying Indochina and metropolitan France under German control, the Free French administration turned to Australia for emergency currency production. The Note Printing Branch in Melbourne — primarily equipped for Commonwealth obligations — ran off these small-denomination issues to keep the colonial economy functioning under extraordinary conditions.
The Australian connection is often overlooked. P#48 is one of several denominations produced in Melbourne during this period, a arrangement that would have been unthinkable in peacetime.