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 | 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 | Multicolor intaglio-printed note overprinted with "MARTINIQUE" on the margins of the P#25 French Equatorial Africa issue. The central vignette presents two women at right, set against a background vignette of a sailboat and coastal houses at left. Denomination and issuer inscriptions appear in the margins, with engraver and designer credits at lower border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | MARTINIQUE CAISSE CENTRALE DE LA FRANCE D'OUTRE-MER 500 L'ART 139 DU CODE PÉNAL PUNIT DES TRAVAUX FORCES A PERPÉTUITÉ CEUX QUI AURONT CONTREFAIT OU FALSIFIE LES BILLETS DE BANQUE AUTORISÉES PAR LA LOI C. SERVEAU FEC. HOURRIEZ SC. (Translation: Martinique Central Fund of Overseas France Article 139 of the Penal Code punishes with forced labor those who have counterfeited or falsified bank notes authorized by law.) |
| 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 established in 1944 specifically to manage currency in French overseas territories liberated from Vichy and Axis control, separating their monetary supply from metropolitan France. This 500 Francs note, printed at the Banque de France workshops, circulated across a remarkably dispersed set of territories — the same type served Martinique, Guadeloupe, Réunion, and French Guiana simultaneously, with overprints or local authorization distinguishing end destinations.
Clément Serveau was among the more accomplished French illustrators of the interwar period, and the Banque de France engravers Beltrand and Hourriez brought genuine intaglio craft to the execution. Notes of this series are prone to horizontal folds from counter use; clean unfolded examples are harder to find than the catalog frequency suggests.