50 Francs

The Banque de l'Algérie was established in 1851 with a monopoly on note issuance across French Algeria, though its early decades were marked by persistent disputes over whether colonists, metropolitan merchants, or the military administration would effectively control credit policy. This 50 Francs issue falls within a period when the bank was dramatically expanding its branch network into the interior, following the consolidation of French control after decades of armed resistance.

Gabasson and the engraver credited here — whose name appears inconsistently across catalog sources — worked within the established conventions of French intaglio printing of the period. The cotton substrate was standard for metropolitan French issues of the same era, imported rather than locally sourced.