50 Cents

Printed locally at the Imprimerie d'Extrême-Orient in Hanoi rather than farmed out to a metropolitan French printer, this note reflects the Gouvernement Général's push toward self-sufficient colonial administration in the late 1930s. The earliest signature combinations used "Le Trésorier Payeur Général" — a title subsequently shortened to "Le Trésorier Général," a bureaucratic adjustment that coincided with wartime administrative restructuring after France fell in 1940.

The back-language progression tells its own story: the Henry & Cazaux variant omits Lao entirely, corrected in later signature pairings. Pick 87b specifically corresponds to the Mayet & Cousin signing with coffee brown coloration, distinguishable from the earlier violet-toned state of the same signature combination.