500 Francs

The Banque de l'Algérie was not a central bank in any modern sense — it operated as a private institution under French government concession, its note-issuing privilege repeatedly renewed from its founding in 1851 through the colonial period. This 500 Francs series ran across sixteen years and two world wars, which means notes bearing dates in the early 1940s were circulating in a colony whose metropolitan government had collapsed and been replaced by Vichy. The political authority behind the issuer changed fundamentally mid-series without any visible change to the notes themselves.

Deloche was among the more accomplished intaglio engravers working in France during this period, with credits across multiple colonial and metropolitan issues for the Banque de France stable of printers.