5 Piastres

The Banque de l'Indo-Chine, though a private colonial institution chartered in Paris, held monopoly rights over note issuance across French Indochina — a commercial privilege that generated considerable political friction back in France throughout the early 1900s. This small-denomination note was printed by the Banque de France itself, an unusual arrangement that blurred the line between state and colonial private banking infrastructure more than the issuer would perhaps have liked acknowledged.

Ruffe was a skilled intaglio engraver whose work appears on several colonial issues of this period. The Duval-Ruffe pairing was not uncommon for French colonial printings of the era, though P#16 represents one of their more modest commissions in terms of denomination.