100 Piastres

Banque de France printed this series for Banque de l'Indo-Chine under a formal production arrangement — the same relationship that supplied notes for several French colonial territories in the early twentieth century. Bellery-Desfontaines was primarily a poster and decorative arts designer, a slightly unconventional choice for banknote work, and his involvement here places this series at an interesting intersection of Art Nouveau commercial illustration and intaglio currency production.

Ruffe and Gaspérini were both accomplished Banque de France engravers working the plates on opposite sides — an unusual split credit for a colonial issue of this denomination.