100 Francs La Bourdonnais

The Caisse Centrale de la France d'Outre-Mer issued this series to serve French colonial territories across multiple continents simultaneously — the same note circulated in places as geographically and economically distinct as Réunion, French Guiana, and Guadeloupe. That breadth of intended use required a neutral, non-specific design, which is precisely why Pierre Poivre's associate La Bourdonnais — a colonial administrator of the Indian Ocean — was chosen as a figure palatable across such disparate jurisdictions.

Armanelli and Régnier were among the Banque de France's senior engravers in this period, and their work on this issue shows the full intaglio quality the Paris atelier maintained even in immediate postwar production.