France banknote - 100 francs - year 1931 - Luc Olivier-Merson - free shipping

Description

The franc, also commonly distinguished as the French franc (FF), was a currency of France. Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money. It was reintroduced (in decimal form) in 1795. It was revalued in 1960, with each new franc (NF) being worth 100 old francs. The NF designation was continued for a few years before the currency returned to being simply the franc; the French continued to reference and value items in terms of the old franc (equivalent to the new centime) until the introduction of the euro in 1999 (for accounting purposes) and 2002 (for coins and banknotes). The French franc was a commonly held international reserve currency in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Before World War I, when France was firmly on the gold standard, a franc was worth about 19 cents, or 5.18 to the dollar. It declined drastically in the '20s, to 25 to the dollar, i.e., 4 cents. That's one reason Americans of little means found France such a great place to live. After Britain, and then the U.S. abandoned the gold standard, the franc actually rose to about 15 to the dollar by 1935. Of course there was terrible inflation after World War II — in the end, the old franc literally wasn't worth a sou.
After the Second World War, while 5, 10 and 20-franc notes were replaced by coins in 1950, as were the 50- and 100-franc notes in the mid-1950s. In 1954, the 10,000-franc notes were introduced.
The 100 Franc Luc Olivier Merson (or simply Merson) is a French bank note created January 2, 1908, put into circulation from January 3, 1910 by the Bank of France instead of 100 francs blue and pink. He was replaced by the 100 francs Sully.
This note belongs to the series of polychrome notes initiated, not without difficulties, by the Bank of France at the end of the nineteenth century in order to thwart numerous attempts at counterfeiting. The Monetary Institute first commissioned a first project in 1891 to the painters Daniel Dupuis and Georges Duval, created in 1892 but which was not accepted (see below). Another project was later commissioned from an American printing press but was also refused.
In the end, and with delay, the "100 francs Merson" is the first polychrome ticket to actually circulate in France. He was severely criticized by some of the opinion but made "a dazzling career" 2 with 1,689,725,000 copies.
The vintages range from January 1908 to September 1939 and the bill is withdrawn from circulation and deprived of its legal tender on June 4, 1945.
It is the painter Luc-Olivier Merson who executes the drawings while the engraving is signed Romagnol and the watermark is by Frédéric Florian (1858-1926). The style of this French post is related to the current Art Nouveau ending.
The dominant tones are blue, yellow-orange and gray.
On the front, all the elements of the decor are connected to a central stele where are listed all the information specific to the ticket. Two women are represented: one symbolizing Agriculture, and the other symbolizing Commerce. Every woman has a naked child near her.
On the back, we can see three characters: on the left, a seated blacksmith representing Labor, and on the right a woman symbolizing Fortune and carrying a cornucopia filled with fruit, with, next to her, a child covering her nudity by a wreath of braided leaves.
The watermark represents a couple of heads, first Mercury and Ceres, in profile.
Its dimensions are 182 mm x 112 mm.
The choice of the engraver of Italian origin, Cesare Romagnoli (1865-1918), said Romagnol, nevertheless recruited on contest, struck French chauvinism. In 1913, however, the Monetary Institute contacted the American Bank Note Company for a draft bill of 100 francs which was not issued.
The relatively innovative aspect of the ticket surprises and the choice of reasons is criticized by the press. Everything is good to disgrace the composition: for some, the child has a leg too short (left on the front); for others, Fortune (on the back) has a leg too long; as for the peasant carrying her shovel (on the front), the position of her right arm "would reveal paralysis of the elbow". We also notice the blacksmith (on the back) who displays a strange sadness and who holds his left hand enigmatically. A certain Dr. Durante reads his remarks to the Medico-Historical Society on March 8, 1910 and thus concludes without appeal his indictment against this note: "Monoplegia or cubital paralysis of the worker, radial paralysis of the peasant girl, epilating affection of the sheep , and especially considerable partial micromelia of the child, such are the pathological defects which shows us the new bank note of the Bank of France. It deserves to appear in the gallery of the medical chronicle, to which I wish to gather many copies, in order to be able to establish an abundantly documented study.
On the front, the mention Payable in cash, at sight, bearer in the center, under the amount, was printed without interruption until 1939 even though the franc ceased several times to be convertible into gold and the notes were current strength.
Finally, the amount written in words only appears on the single front: suddenly, folded, the ticket becomes "mute".