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Old June 28th 08, 12:08 PM posted to rec.collecting.paper-money
scottishmoney
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Default "French Printed" banknotes?


"Dave" wrote in message
. ..
I'm in the process of updating my website with notes that I consider
"French Printed". I realized I'm not sure if that definition corresponds
with my collection, though. For early notes (say pre-1970) it's my
understanding that Banque de France printed many notes for the various
colonies, and even some notes from Greece, Belgium, Yugoslavia, etc. If
that's correct (could someone confirm?) then these certainly would fall
under a category of "French Printed".

Then after 1970 or so (I'm making that date up, perhaps I'm off by a
decade or so) as these colonies were independent (yes, I realize Greece
and others were never French colonies), the notes from these countries
remain with a similar "look" in their designs, though they're a bit more
modern and not on paper that feels quite as much like cloth as the earlier
French notes. A good example are all the notes from West African States,
potentially up to the current notes (though I don't have any from about
the last 10 years to verify).

I'm curious as to whether there is a strict definition of the term "French
Printed" (as used on eBay, etc) that actually does correspond to notes
that are printed in France, and whether the current notes from W.A.S and
other ex colonies are actually printed in France? Or has the term been
used pretty losely, simply as a visual cue to this "look" that started
with Banque de France?

Thanks
Dave


Greece really only had the "French printed" notes for the 1935 issue, they
were replaced in 1939 with notes printed by Bradbury Wilkinson. Belgium did
have very close notes to those of France, but they were usually designed by
Belgian artists, such as Emile Vloors.

The nation that had notes influenced by French artists, and or printing in
some cases the most was Romania. Their note history goes back to the 1877
issue, which followed the notes of France remarkably closely. Subsequent
notes, with the exception of the small change notes of 1917, were designed
by French graphic artists, such as Clement Serveau and were circulated until
rendered valueless in 1947.

Here are some Romanian notes:

http://www.geocities.com/scottishmon...a/romania.html

And:

http://www.geocities.com/scottishmon...niaindex2.html

But even with the strong French influence, the notes occasionally had
designs by Romanian artists such as Nicolae Grigorescu, designer of the 1000
Lei note, and current subject of the 10 Lei note of 2005.

Curiously some French influenced notes, seemed to have spawned influences of
their own:

http://www.geocities.com/scottishmon...laos/laos.html

Notice the similarity to the French Indochina 100 Piastres of 1950?

With regards Africa, there are numerous countries there still using French
influenced notes, see Madasgascar, Togo, Cameroun etc.


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