5000 Francs

Madagascar remained under Vichy administration until late 1942, when British forces completed their occupation of the island following Operation Ironclad — which means notes of this series were issued under two politically opposed regimes within months of each other. The Banque de Madagascar continued operating through the transition, and the same note designs circulated under both authorities with minimal modification.

Bléger and Forec were a working pair at the Banque de France's printing establishment, and their collaboration appears across multiple French colonial issues of this period. The engraving quality reflects metropolitan French production standards rather than the expedient wartime printing that characterized many occupied-territory issues elsewhere.