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20 Francs
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indochine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed in green and yellow, the reverse is dominated by a large central vignette of a stylized native mask rendered in fine intaglio line work, flanked on either side by tall guilloche-bordered columns. The denomination VINGT 20 FRANCS appears to the left, with the anti-counterfeiting legal warning text in a panel to the right, and BANQUE DE L'INDOCHINE and NOUMÉA inscribed in the upper and lower border panels respectively. |
| Reverse lettering | BANQUE DE L'INDOCHINE VINGT 20 FRANCS L'ARTICLE 139 DU CODE PÉNAL PUNIT DES TRAVAUX FORCÉS CEUX QUI AURONT CONTREFAIT OU FALSIFIÉ LES BILLETS DE BANQUES AUTORISÉES PAR LA LOI NOUMÉA (Translation: Bank of Indochina Twenty Francs Article 139 of the Penal Code punishes with forced labor those who have counterfeited or falsified banknotes authorized by law. Noumea) |
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| Comments |
Banque de l'Indochine's wartime operations created genuine logistical nightmares for currency supply. With French Indochina under Japanese occupation and metropolitan France itself occupied, the bank's normal printing arrangements through European firms were impossible to maintain. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia's Note Printing Branch stepped in as the practical solution, producing this series for the Free French administration.
The Australian connection is often overlooked. Melbourne-produced Indochinese francs represent an unusual moment when Allied printing infrastructure was redirected to colonial monetary needs — a decision driven entirely by geography and wartime necessity rather than any established relationship between the two institutions.