Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 Francs - Blue, black denomination type 1871
| Issuer | Banque de France |
|---|---|
| Year | 1871-1874 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | P#60 |
| Obverse description | Two allegorical statues on pedestals flank the left and right margins, printed in blue with the denomination value in black at center. A date accompanied by a zodiac sign appears within the design. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A central intaglio vignette in blue presents three allegorical figures representing Science, Agriculture, and Commerce grouped around a throne; the figure of Science to the left is accompanied by a celestial globe and an open book, while Commerce to the right holds a caduceus and is seated beside sheaves of wheat, with the enthroned central figure raising a staff. Flanking text panels in letterpress on each side contain legal notice articles relating to the Banque de France. The numeral 5 appears in guilloche cartouches at the upper left and upper right corners. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
This issue dates from an extraordinarily compressed moment in French monetary history: the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune, during which the Banque de France had suspended specie payments and flooded circulation with small-denomination notes to compensate for the hoarding and disappearance of coin. The 5 Franc note was not a routine issue — it was a direct response to metallic currency vanishing from everyday commerce under wartime and then insurrectionary conditions.
Chazal was a painter by primary training, and Dujardin one of the more technically accomplished engravers working in Paris at the time. The collaboration was not unusual for Banque de France commissions of the period, which consistently drew on fine-arts talent rather than purely commercial printing houses.
Specie payments resumed in 1878, after which this series was progressively withdrawn.