Catalog
500 Piastres
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indochine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1939 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Banque de France, France |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANQUE DE L'INDOCHINE CINQ CENTS PIASTRES L'ARTICLE 139 DU CODE PÉNAL PUNIT DES TRAVAUX FORCÉS CEUX QUI AURONT CONTREFAIT OU FALSIFIÉ LES BILLETS DE BANQUE AUTORISÉE PAR LA LOI SÉB. LAURENT FÉC. RITA - J. PIEL SC. |
| Reverse description | Central intaglio vignette mirroring the obverse allegorical group of two laurel-crowned female figures, here set before a monumental architectural backdrop flanked by two large sculptured elephants. Lotus flowers appear at lower left and right. Multilingual denomination panels are arranged at left in Vietnamese, Khmer, and Lao scripts, and at right in Chinese characters reading "伍百元" alongside the bank name "東方匯理銀行". |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Banque de l'Indochine's high-denomination issues of this period were produced in Paris under Banque de France facilities, which gave them a quality of engraving rarely matched by colonial printers elsewhere. Marguerite Dreyfus — known professionally as Rita — was among the more accomplished intaglio engravers working at the Banque de France workshops during the interwar years, and her collaboration with Jules Piel on the obverse plate is unusual; shared engraving credits on a single face typically signal a divided commission, one engraver handling figures, the other architectural or decorative elements.
The 1939 print date places this squarely in the months before French Indochina's supply lines to metropolitan France were severed by the fall of 1940. Subsequent 500 Piastres issues had to be produced under dramatically different conditions — some eventually printed in Hanoi rather than Paris.