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500 Francs - Pascal type 1968 uniface
| Issuer | Banque de France |
|---|---|
| Year | 1980-1991 |
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| In circulation to | 28 February 2007 |
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| Obverse description | Central intaglio vignette of Blaise Pascal in bust portrait. To the left, the Gothic bell tower of the Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie church in Paris; to the right, the Notre-Dame-de-Prospérité chapel in Clermont-Ferrand. Denomination numerals and issuer inscription appear in the margins. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | This uniface trial note presents an essentially blank reverse, with only faint ghost impressions of the obverse design visible through the paper. To the upper right, a prominent oval vignette of the Virgin appears as a raised white relief element, consistent with a uniface printing test where the reverse carries no inked design. |
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| Comments |
The Pascal 500 Francs ran from 1968 through 1994 — one of the longer production runs in modern French banknote history — and the 1980–1991 window marks the middle phase, during which the Banque de France made incremental security adjustments without altering the plate design. The "uniface" designation here refers to catalog classification, not a printing defect.
Fontanarosa was a painter and academician, not a professional banknote designer, which gives this note a slightly different visual register than contemporaries produced by career engravers. Armanelli's intaglio work translates that painterly sensibility into print with unusual fidelity. The 500 Franc denomination was the workhorse of large transactions in France before the 200 Franc note was reintroduced in 1995.