Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Francs
| Issuer | Banque de Madagascar et des Comores |
|---|---|
| Year | 1950-1960 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Obverse: Gilbert Poilliot Reverse: Georges Régnier |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | To the centre-right, an intaglio portrait vignette of a young Malagasy woman wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and a white shawl, set against a fine floral and botanical underprint with guilloche patterning. The denomination "50" appears in large numerals at upper left and upper right, with the bank title across the top and the value "CINQUANTE FRANCS" in bold letterpress at lower centre. Two facsimile signatures appear at the bottom, attributed to the Contrôleur Général at lower left and the Directeur Général at lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | At centre, an intaglio vignette of a Malagasy man wearing a hat, set before a scenic background with a river, a boat, and a village, all framed by an elaborate botanical border with tropical foliage motifs. The denomination "50" appears at upper left, with the bank title and anti-counterfeiting warning legend arranged around the central vignette. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Banque de Madagascar et des Comores was a colonial institution established in 1950 when the earlier Banque de Madagascar was reorganized to formally incorporate the Comoros Islands into its mandate — a purely administrative reshaping that changed the letterhead more than the banking practice. Clément Serveau designed extensively for French colonial currency throughout the mid-twentieth century, with Banque de France producing the plates to a consistently high intaglio standard. Poilliot and Régnier were both accomplished engravers within that atelier, their division of labor across obverse and reverse being routine for the period.
The series ran across a decade without significant design revision, which occasionally makes precise dating within the 1950–1960 window difficult where manuscript dates are faded or absent.