Catalog
500 Piastres
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indochine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1951 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANQUE DE L'INDOCHINE CINQ CENTS PIASTRES L'ART. 139 DU CODE PÉNAL PUNIT DES TRAVAUX FORCÉS CEUX QUI AURONT CONTREFAIT OU FALSIFIÉ LES BILLETS DE BANQUE AUTORISÉES PAR LA LOI SÉB. LAURENT FEC. RITA - J. PIEL SC. |
| Reverse description | The same classical vignette of the woman and her young laureate companion is rendered in a lighter intaglio palette, now set against a background of two large seated elephants flanking a stylised architectural gateway. Multilingual denomination inscriptions appear at right in Chinese characters (伍佰元) alongside Vietnamese (GIẤY NĂM TRĂM ĐỒNG), Khmer, and Lao scripts. Engravers' credits SÉB. LAURENT FEC. and HOURRIEZ SC. are present at the lower margins. |
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| Comments |
By 1951, Banque de France was printing these high-denomination notes for a colonial currency system already under severe strain — the First Indochina War was entering its fifth year, and French authority over the region was visibly eroding. The 500 Piastres was a significant sum in daily terms, making this primarily a commercial and institutional instrument rather than anything ordinary Indochinese residents handled with regularity.
The engraving credits are unusually well-documented for a colonial issue. Marguerite Dreyfus, who signed professionally as "Rita," was one of the few women working at that level in Banque de France's engraving workshops during the postwar period.