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50 Centimes
| Issuer | Trésor Colonial |
|---|---|
| Year | 1884 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress text on light-green paper within a decorative guilloche border running along all four edges. The note is entirely typographic in character, with the heading ILE DE LA RÉUNION and TRESOR COLONIAL set in bold display type above the authorizing decree reference, and the denomination BON POUR CINQUANTE CENTIMES printed in large bold capitals across the center. Two manuscript signature lines below the denomination are captioned for the Délégué du Directeur de l'Intérieur and the Trésorier-payeur respectively, with a circular official ink stamp partially overlapping the upper-right area. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is uniface, showing only the blind embossed impressions of the obverse text bleeding through the thin paper stock, with no printed design or lettering applied to this side. |
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| Comments |
The Trésor Colonial was the French colonial treasury authority, and this 50 Centimes note from 1884 represents one of its earliest small-denomination fractional issues. Fractional paper currency of this kind was typically a stopgap against coin shortages in remote colonial territories, where low-value specie drained away or simply never arrived in sufficient quantity.
Pick #1 status suggests this is the first catalogued note for this issuer — though thin documentation on early French colonial fractional issues means the full printing and distribution history remains poorly established.