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5 Francs Red Type
| Issuer | Banque de la Martinique |
|---|---|
| Year | 1903-1932 |
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| Value | 5 Francs |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Red-brown intaglio print on white paper, centered within an oval guilloche border. Two portrait vignettes flank the central text block — a male figure at left and a female figure at right — with the denomination numeral '5' repeated in each corner. A cartouche at the lower center carries the statutory penal warning, and two handwritten facsimile signatures appear between the 'Le Directeur' and 'Le Caissier' designations. The designer's credit 'AH-CABASSON, INV ET DEL 1874' is inscribed along the lower margin. |
|---|---|
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| Signature(s) | Alizard & Bonneville (1903) Dinolage & Pradeu Didellot & Pradeu (1929) Didellot & Hing (1932) |
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| Comments |
The Banque de la Martinique was one of the colonial privilege banks established under French imperial banking law, granted an exclusive note-issuing monopoly for the island. This 5 Francs issue had a remarkably long run — nearly three decades across a single type — with successive signature combinations tracking the bank's changing directorship from 1903 through 1932. Four distinct signature pairings over that span is unusual even for a long-lived colonial issue.
The designer credit conceals an interesting ambiguity: Guillaume-Alphonse Harang worked professionally under the name Guillaume Cabasson, and catalog attributions sometimes split between the two names as if they were different artists.