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50 Francs Quentin de la Tour, type 1976
| Issuer | Banque de France |
|---|---|
| Year | 1976-1992 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 50 Francs (50 FRF) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | To the left, a second intaglio portrait vignette of Maurice-Quentin de La Tour in a contrasting pose. The background presents an engraved view of the Hôtel de Ville of Saint-Quentin, the artist's birthplace, rendered in fine line work. The denomination numeral 50 appears in large format at both left and right, with the statutory anti-counterfeiting legend filling the lower portion of the note. |
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| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Three-quarter profile head of Maurice-Quentin de La Tour |
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| Comments |
Quentin de la Tour — the eighteenth-century pastellist after whom this series is named — was an odd choice for a banknote, given that he died in poverty and was known to have refused lucrative portrait commissions on principle. The irony went largely unremarked. Fontanarosa's design ran for sixteen years across six distinct signature combinations, which is a useful chronological tool: the Bruneel/Bonnardin/Charriau pairing appears only in the final year of issue, 1992, making late-dated examples easy to attribute.
Chamalières had been the Banque de France's primary production facility since the early 1970s, and this note was among the first long runs to come entirely from that plant under consolidated printing arrangements.