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5 Nouveaux Francs - Victor Hugo type 1959
| Issuer | Banque de France |
|---|---|
| Year | 1959-1965 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | New franc (1960-2001) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Portrait of Victor Hugo to the left in intaglio, with a vignette of his former residence on the Place des Vosges, Paris, rendered in the background. The composition is framed by guilloche borders, with the denomination numeral "5" and the issuer name repeated across the face. |
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
The 5 NF was part of a wholesale renaming forced by de Gaulle's 1960 redenomination, which lopped two zeros off the old franc and created the nouveau franc — a move as much psychological as economic, designed to signal that postwar financial chaos was finished. This denomination effectively replaced the 500-franc note of the Fourth Republic overnight.
Serveau had designed banknotes for the Banque de France since the interwar period, and Marliat was among the most accomplished intaglio engravers of his generation at the Paris workshops. The collaboration was well-established long before this series.
The series ran until 1965, by which point "nouveau" was quietly dropped from everyday usage — most French simply called them francs again.