500 Francs

The Banque de la Guadeloupe was one of the four colonial issuing banks established under French law in 1851, alongside its counterparts in Martinique, Réunion, and Guyane. These institutions operated under a framework that kept colonial currency supply formally separate from the Banque de France, though always subordinate to metropolitan monetary policy. The 500 Francs denomination would have been a large-value instrument in a plantation economy where most daily transactions ran far smaller.

Jacques-Jean Barre was the chief engraver at the Paris Mint — his name on colonial banknote designs of this period typically indicates plate work executed before his death in 1855, reused across decades of subsequent printings. The note's issue window spanning 1887 to 1929 almost certainly reflects a single plate design issued across multiple print runs rather than continuous fresh production.