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1 Dollar / 1 Piastre - Saigon
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indo-Chine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1892-1899 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANQUE DE L'INDO-CHINE SAIGON DÉCRETS DU 21 JANVIER 1875 ET DU 20 FÉVRIER 1888 EMISSION AUTORISÉE LE 3 AOUT 1891 ONE DOLLAR TO BE PAID ON DEMAND TO BEARER UN ADMINISTRATEUR UNE PIASTRE PAYABLE EN ESPÈCES AU PORTEUR LE DIRECTEUR DANIEL DUPUIS ET GEORGES DUVAL FEC. A LÉVEILLÉ SC. |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in blue-grey intaglio on a fine guilloche underprint, with a large central field bearing two columns of Chinese characters reading 東方滙理銀行銀壹元正奉本國特諭, flanked symmetrically by the anti-counterfeiting warning in French set within ornate dragon and fret-pattern borders. The denomination "$1" appears in each of the four corners, and a dragon vignette occupies the lower centre below the Chinese text. The designers' credit "DANIEL DUPUIS ET GEORGES DUVAL FEC." is printed in small letters along the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
The Banque de l'Indochine was established by French imperial decree in 1875 with a note-issuing monopoly across French colonial territories in Southeast Asia. This issue, produced by the Banque de France's printing workshops in Paris, reflects a deliberate policy decision to keep plate production under metropolitan control rather than allow any local printing capacity in Saigon — a precaution against counterfeiting in a colony where the French administration never fully trusted the infrastructure it had built.
Dupuis was one of the most decorated medallists of the Paris Mint; his involvement here is the same arrangement used for French metropolitan small-denomination coinage of the period. Léveillé's engraving work is consistent with Banque de France intaglio standards of the 1880s–90s.
The dual denomination — Dollar and Piastre — reflects the note's function across both the Straits dollar zone and the French piastre system simultaneously.