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5 Francs without branch name
| Issuer | Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Franc (1895-1944) |
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| Obverse description | At left, a lion vignette in intaglio; at right, a sailing vessel and dock scene. The centre bears the bank title BANQUE DE L'AFRIQUE OCCIDENTALE in an ornate frame above the large denomination CINQ FRANCS in red letterpress, with the payability clause below. Two manuscript signatures appear between the roles Un Administrateur and Le Directeur, with a handwritten date below the central guilloche panel. Serial number and alphanumeric prefix appear at all four corners within an elaborate geometric border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse repeats the same engraved design as the obverse face, with the lion vignette at left, the harbour scene at right, and the central denomination panel, confirming this is a uniface-style note printed identically on both sides. The lower margin carries the designer and engraver credits, and serial number pairs are repeated in the four corner panels within the same geometric guilloche border. |
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| Comments |
Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale was established in 1901 as the note-issuing authority for French West Africa, and this 1919 issue appeared during a period when the bank was consolidating its circulating paper across multiple territories — Senegal, Dahomey, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, and others — without specifying a branch, which is precisely what distinguishes this P#5G from related types in the series that carry explicit branch overprints or printed place names.
Bellery-Desfontaines was primarily an illustrator and poster artist, not a conventional banknote designer, which gives the artwork an unusual graphic quality for the period. Florian's engraving for the Banque de France was meticulous; the plate work on this series is noticeably finer than contemporaneous colonial issues from other French printers.