Catalog
500 Francs
| Issuer | Banque de Madagascar et des Comores |
|---|---|
| Year | 1950-1958 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of a man wearing a traditional hat and holding a basket of fruit in his left hand, rendered in intaglio. An intricate floral pattern forms the background underprint. The denomination "500" and issuing authority "BANQUE DE MADAGASCAR ET DES COMORES" appear in the surrounding letterpress, with engraver and designer credits at lower margin. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
The Banque de Madagascar et des Comores was itself a transitional institution — created in 1950 to replace the Caisse Centrale de la France d'Outre-Mer as the currency authority for both territories, it existed for barely a decade before Malagasy independence in 1960 forced another restructuring. This note falls squarely within that interregnum period of French colonial monetary administration.
Clément Serveau was a prolific designer for the Banque de France's overseas issues, and Armanelli's intaglio engraving on the obverse is characteristically fine — the Banque de France's printing standards for colonial paper were, if anything, more consistent than for some metropolitan issues of the same period.