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500 Francs With Decree
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indo-Chine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1898 |
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| Engraver(s) | Charles-Jules Robert |
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| Obverse description | Printed in blue and red, the obverse carries a vignette of Vasco da Gama at left, with a group of sailing ships in the lower centre. At right, a Polynesian man stands aboard a traditional sea-dragon boat, holding a paddle. The plate inscription credits A. Bramtot and G. Duval as designers and J. Robert as engraver. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed in blue, the reverse is covered with an intricate overall guilloche pattern composed of fine lathe-work text and ornamental scrollwork forming a dense, lace-like underprint. A large blank oval medallion is centred within the design, flanked by four rectangular panels filled with repeated micro-lettering of the denomination and issuer name. The entire field is bordered by a decorative guilloche frame. |
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| Comments |
Bramtot and Duval designed this note for the Banque de France's intaglio workshops, with engraving by Charles-Jules Robert — a combination that places it firmly within the aesthetic tradition of late nineteenth-century French colonial fiduciary printing, where metropolitan prestige was deliberately projected into the monetary instruments of administered territories. The Banque de l'Indo-Chine, chartered in 1875, held exclusive note-issuing rights across French Indochina and, for a period, extended its reach into French India and the Pacific settlements.
The "With Decree" designation distinguishes issues formally authorized under specific ministerial decree — a bureaucratic distinction that mattered to the colonial administration far more than to the merchants and coolies who used these notes in daily commerce.