500 Francs

The Territoire Français des Afars et des Issas was the colonial name applied to the territory between 1967 and independence in 1977, when it became Djibouti. This note was issued in the final years of French administration, during a period of mounting internal pressure for independence and a 1975 UN resolution calling on France to decolonize. The Trésor Public, rather than a local issuing bank, controlled the currency — a deliberate arrangement that kept monetary authority firmly in Paris.

Chéri Hérouard handled both the reverse design and the obverse engraving, an unusual dual credit that suggests close coordination between the artistic and technical phases of production at the Banque de France atelier.