The "F.C." overprint — standing for "France Continentale" — was applied to distinguish notes intended for metropolitan France from those circulating in the colonies, a administrative partition that reflected the fractured monetary geography of Vichy-era French territories. The Banque de France pressed its own facilities into service for Indochinese currency production after the fall of France severed normal supply chains to Saigon.
Gaspérini's engraving on the obverse is competent professional work from the Banque de France atelier. Dreyfus, who signed her reverse engraving as "Rita," was among the few women working at that level in French intaglio printing at the time.
The "F.C." overprint — standing for "France Continentale" — was applied to distinguish notes intended for metropolitan France from those circulating in the colonies, a administrative partition that reflected the fractured monetary geography of Vichy-era French territories. The Banque de France pressed its own facilities into service for Indochinese currency production after the fall of France severed normal supply chains to Saigon.
Gaspérini's engraving on the obverse is competent professional work from the Banque de France atelier. Dreyfus, who signed her reverse engraving as "Rita," was among the few women working at that level in French intaglio printing at the time.