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100 Francs
| Issuer | Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale |
|---|---|
| Year | 1905 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 100 Francs |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
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| 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 in orange-red and displays an elaborate geometric and arabesque framework of interlocking diamond and oval guilloche patterns surrounding a central hexagonal underprint. The text, rendered entirely in Arabic script, carries the bank's name and the denomination details across multiple registers within the ornamental border. At lower left, the engraver's name Georges Duval appears in small lettering. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
The Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale held a monopoly on currency issue across French West Africa from its founding in 1901, replacing a patchwork of commercial house scrip and metropolitan coin that had made trade across the region genuinely chaotic. This 1905 note is among the earliest issues from that mandate — the bank was barely four years old when it was printed.
Ernest et Frédéric Florian were a Paris security printing firm active in the early twentieth century but far less documented than contemporaries like Bradbury Wilkinson or the Imprimerie Nationale. Duval's engraving work on this series is competent but the printer's relative obscurity makes attribution questions on later reprints harder to resolve cleanly.
The Pick unlisted status suggests extremely limited surviving examples — or none previously recorded in major collections at the time the catalog was compiled.