Catalog
50 Centimes
| Issuer | Régence de Tunis |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Green letterpress note with an ornate guilloche border incorporating stylised columns at each side and a crescent-and-star device at the top centre. The denomination CINQUANTE CENTIMES is printed in large bold letters across the upper field, with bilingual Arabic and French text below giving the decree date and issuing authority; a central oval vignette contains the counterfeiting warning. Two manuscript signatures appear in the lower half, those of the Trésorier Général de Tunisie at left and the Directeur Général des Finances at right, with series and serial number printed in the respective corners. |
|---|---|
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| 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.