Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 Dollars / 5 Piastres
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indo-Chine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1886-1896 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Rectangular |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in blue and features two large confronted dragons at left and right flanking a central rectangular text panel bearing a legal notice in French and in Chinese characters. A lower horizontal band repeats the BANQUE DE L'INDO-CHINE issuer name and denomination in a guilloche-bordered underprint strip. The overall design is executed in a dense ornamental style with elaborate interlocking border patterns. |
| Reverse lettering | BANQUE DE L'INDO-CHINE 5 PIASTRES A. BRAMTOT + G. DUVAL FEC CH-WULLSCHLEGER SC |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Banque de l'Indo-Chine was chartered in 1875 by the French government specifically to finance colonial commerce and to displace the mixture of Chinese, Mexican, and Spanish silver coin then circulating across the region. This note came out of that founding mandate — the dual denomination in dollars and piastres reflects genuine monetary uncertainty on the ground, where traders in Saigon, Hanoi, and Phnom Penh were still quoting prices in multiple systems simultaneously.
Bramtot and Duval were both Prix de Rome laureates, an unusual pedigree for banknote design work. Wullschleger's engraving was executed in Paris, almost certainly at the Imprimerie Nationale or under its direct supervision. The series ran nearly a decade with no major design revision — a long print life for early colonial issues of this ambition.