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!
500 Francs
| Issuer | Caisse Centrale de la France d'Outre-Mer |
|---|---|
| Year | 1947-1949 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Paper |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | CAISSE CENTRALE DE LA FRANCE D'OUTRE-MER 500 GUADELOUPE CINQ CENTS FRANCS C. SERVEAU FEC. C. BELTRAND SC. (Translation: Central Fund of Overseas France Guadeloupe Five Hundred Francs) |
| Reverse description | Multicolour vignette centred on an agricultural scene with labourers guiding ox-drawn carts laden with harvested crops, set against a lush tropical backdrop of pineapple plants and sugar cane. The word 'GUADELOUPE' appears in vertical lettering along both lateral margins, with the denomination '500' at upper left and right. A penal code warning legend runs across the lower centre, with engraver and designer credits at the lower corners. |
| 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 Caisse Centrale de la France d'Outre-Mer was created by de Gaulle's provisional government in 1944 specifically to issue currency in liberated and overseas French territories — a deliberate mechanism for reasserting French monetary authority in the colonies after the chaos of wartime occupation currencies. This 500 Francs note served across a remarkably broad geography, circulating in territories from the French Antilles to Réunion, depending on overprint or the absence of one.
Clément Serveau was a prolific designer for French colonial issues of this period, and the engraving work was split between two of the Banque de France's senior craftsmen. Camille Beltrand came from one of the great dynasties of French bank note engravers — his father Jules was equally prominent in the trade.