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 New Francs Overprint on P#36 - 5000 Francs
| Issuer | Caisse Centrale de la France d'Outre-Mer |
|---|---|
| Year | 1960-1963 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| 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) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Multicolour note with a central vignette of a woman holding a fruit bowl, set against a background of coconut palms on a tropical beach at left. The margins carry repeated red letterpress inscriptions reading 'Martinique' on all four sides. A red overprint reading 'CONTRE-VALEUR DE 50 NOUVEAUX FRANCS' appears at right, applied diagonally over the original 5000 Francs design. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | martinique 5000 CINQ MILLE FRANCS CONTRE-VALEUR DE 50 NOUVEAUX FRANCS CAISSE CENTRALE DE LA FRANCE D'OUTRE-MER (Translation: Martinique Five Thousand Francs Counter-value of Fifty New Francs Central Fund of Overseas France) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| 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 overprint series was a stopgap measure tied directly to France's 1960 monetary reform, which revalued the franc at 100 old francs to 1 new franc. Rather than commission entirely new plates for its overseas territories, the Caisse Centrale simply overprinted existing stock of the 5000 Francs note — a practical economy that created one of the more visually jarring transitional issues in the French colonial monetary record.
The Banque de France handled the overprinting in Paris on the same presses that produced the underlying note, which means the parent plate and the conversion stamp share the same institutional origin — an unusual case of a single printer effectively issuing two generations of the same piece.