Catalog
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| Issuer | Banque de l'Algérie |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Purple on light blue underprint; two child figures flank a central arabesque cartouche bearing the denomination numeral '20', with prickly pear cacti and agave plants in the background. Ornamental guilloche border surrounds the design, similar in style to P#17. |
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| Signature(s) | Caissier Principal and Le Secrétaire Général |
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| Comments |
The Banque de l'Algérie had a peculiar administrative position during and immediately after the war — it operated under Vichy authority until the Allied landings in November 1942, after which it functioned under the French Committee of National Liberation. Notes issued in 1945 fall under the reconstituted French authority, but the bank itself remained a private colonial institution chartered in Paris, not a state central bank. Its notes circulated alongside metropolitan French currency at a fixed parity, though Algerian notes were not legal tender in France itself.
Pick 18 continued a pre-war design lineage. The two-signature format — Caissier Principal and Secrétaire Général — was standard for the series and unchanged across the political transitions of the early 1940s.