Catalog
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indo-Chine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1899 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Piastre (1880-1952) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in Chinese characters on a light blue-grey guilloche ground composed of repeating geometric scroll borders arranged in vertical and horizontal bands. The denomination and banking authority are inscribed in vertical columns of Chinese text, with a central oval reserve left blank. Manuscript red ink notations appear diagonally across the face of the note. |
| Reverse lettering | 銀壹百元 見字交銀 奉本國特諭 東方匯理銀行 高綿 六省 壹百元 |
| 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 |
The Banque de l'Indo-Chine held a monopoly on note issue across French Indochina from 1875, renewed repeatedly by colonial decree against persistent opposition from local trading interests who wanted a state bank instead. This 100-dollar note — the dollar denomination tracking the regional Mexican peso–based currency common across Southeast Asian trade — was printed by the Banque de France's own printing works in Paris, which the BIC used for its high-value issues.
Bramtot was a Prix de Rome sculptor whose commercial graphic work appeared on several French colonial issues of the period; Robert's engraving on this series is among the finer intaglio work produced for colonial paper at the turn of the century. Surviving examples in any collectible grade are genuinely uncommon — the BIC routinely repatriated and destroyed worn high-denomination notes rather than recirculate them.