Catalog
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| Issuer | Banque de l'Indochine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945 |
| 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 |
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| Obverse description | Printed in brown on paper, the obverse is based on the New Caledonia P-46a design, with a central vignette of a seated woman wearing a wreath accompanied by a small figure of Athena. A red oval overprint bearing the legend NOUVELLES HÉBRIDES FRANCE LIBRE, flanked by palm trees and the Cross of Lorraine, is applied to distinguish this issue for the New Hebrides under the Free France administration. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | BANQUE DE L`INDOCHINE CENT 100 FRANCS NOUMÉA (Translation: Bank of Indochina Hundred Francs Noumea) |
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| Comments |
The Banque de l'Indochine 100 Francs of 1945 is one of the more geographically unlikely notes in the French colonial series. With Japanese forces occupying Indochina and metropolitan France unable to supply currency, the Allied-aligned administration turned to Australia. The Note Printing Branch in Melbourne produced the issue — a colonial French bank note rolling off Australian government presses is not a combination that recurs anywhere else in the catalog.
Distribution was complicated by the war's final months and the political chaos that followed Japan's August 1945 surrender. Many of these notes arrived in-territory only as the French were scrambling to reassert control against the Viet Minh.