2.25 Francs Doany leprosarium

Doany is a village in the Betsiboka region of northern Madagascar. The leprosarium there operated its own internal scrip — a closed-currency system common to French colonial medical institutions where patients were isolated indefinitely and required a medium of exchange that could not legally re-enter general circulation. The 2.25 Franc denomination is an oddity: fractional and non-standard, likely calibrated to a specific ration or canteen pricing structure rather than to the official franc system.

These notes almost never surface. Scrip from colonial leprosaria was deliberately contained — by policy and by public fear.