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50 Centimes
| Issuer | Régence de Tunis |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Joseph Friedling |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | REGENCE DE TUNIS CINQUANTE CENTIMES DÉCRET DU 3 MARS 1920 13 DJOUMADI-ETTHANI 1338 VALEUR ÉCHANGEABLE CONTRE DES BILLETS DE LA BANQUE DE L'ALGÉRIE LE CONTREFACTEUR EST PUNI DES TRAVAUX FORCES À PERPÉTUITÉ PROTECTORAT FRANÇAIS LITH. YVORRA & BARLIER TUNIS J. FRIEDLING Graveur |
| Reverse description | Green letterpress reverse with the same guilloche border and corner denomination tablets as the obverse. The entire field is filled with a fine microtext underprint repeating DIRECTION GENERALE DES FINANCES, over which a large crescent device is printed at centre; a circular ink cancellation stamp is applied at the centre of the crescent. The legend DIRECTION GÉNÉRALE DES FINANCES appears in two arched lines framing the crescent, with RÉGENCE DE TUNIS at the top and PROTECTORAT FRANÇAIS along the lower border. |
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| Comments |
The Direction Générale des Finances issued this note under the French Protectorate administration — a colonial bureaucracy issuing currency in its own name rather than through a metropolitan French bank. Small-denomination paper was necessary because metallic coinage had been heavily hoarded or melted during the First World War years, leaving everyday transactions stranded.
Lithographie Yvorra & Barlier was a local Tunis commercial printer, not a specialized security printing house. That explains the lithographic rather than intaglio production — and it shows in surviving examples, which frequently exhibit uneven ink distribution and registration drift between color layers.