France Currency 5 Francs Zodiac banknote of 1916

 French old paper money 5 Francs Zodiac banknote 

  French banknotes5 Francs Zodiac banknote, 1905 type. 

France Currency 5 Francs Zodiac banknote of 1916, issued by the Bank of France - Banque de France
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5 French francs Black "Noir" is a French banknote issued by the Bank of France following the law of 29 December 1871. It is the first French 5 franc bank note.
The nickname "Zodiac" comes from two 12 zodiacal signs that marked the front, in the middle of the serial number, the different months of emissions. This bank note is the work of painter Camille Chazal, engraving by Dujardin:
- obverse: are represented allegorical figures (Force, Work, Fortune)
- reverse: (Agriculture, Science, Wisdom) on the 1871 type only.
The watermark is a white woman's head in profile with the words "Banque de France" below.
The dimensions are 126 x 80 mm.
The type 1905
This model is reproduced identically for the front only 2 January 1912 but in a blue monotype created in 1905 to thwart counterfeiting (the blue color disappears when photographic platemaking), moreover, the index "Five francs "is printed in blue instead of black. Reverse type 1905, there are cornucopias of fruit and flowers surrounding a large white cartridge. There is a variant of the latter, where the sign of July Leo is reversed. Georges Duval take the obverse of Camille Chazal banknote and created the reverse side of 1905 type 5 francs bank note.
Launched July 30, 1914, it has gradually withdrawn from circulation December 30, 1918 and permanently deprived of legal tender on 31 December 1933.

Banknotes of France 10 French Francs banknote of 1942 Mineur

France money 10 French Francs

 Banque de France - dix francs 

France banknotes 10 French Francs Miner "Mineur" banknote of 1942, issued by the Bank of France - Banque de France.

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10 French francs Miner "Mineur" banknote created on September 11, 1941, put into circulation from November 11, 1943 by the Bank of France. This banknote was issued for replacing the 10 francs Minerva.

Obverse: Portrait of a miner in a helmet with an ax on his shoulder, and landscape of settlement at the background, surrounded by two statues of miners. Colors predominantly are brown and gray.
Reverse: Portrait of a peasant mother with a white scarf on a head that keeps one hand a small child and a hoe with the other hand., against the background of bell and rural landscape where spend two oxen with the yoke. Colors predominantly are shades yellow, green and blue.
Watermark: Jeanne d'Arc - Joan of Arc in helmet.
The dimensions are 118 mm x 75 mm.

This 10 francs banknote arises in the context of the German occupation of France. The General Council of the Bank of France wanted to develop a range evoking businesses and regions, an issue that aroused some controversy in the press at the time (see 5 francs Berger).

In the first draft presented to the General Council in 1939 by Jonas, we saw the front one soldier with rifle on shoulder.

Even though mentions the work and family, two themes dear for Pétain, however found this banknote thanks to the Government formed the Liberation since it was printed until 1949 and withdrawn from circulation in 1951. He was deprived of legal tender on 1 January 1963.
It was painted in polychrome by a specialist in iconography mining Lucien Jonas, and engraved by Camille Beltrand and Ernest Pierre Deloche.

French Banknotes

1941-1950 Issue

5 Francs Berger    10 Francs Mineur    20 Francs    100 Francs Rene Descartes    500 Francs Jean-Baptiste Colbert    1000 Francs Demeter    5000 French Union

Currency of France 500 French Francs banknote 1942 La Paix

 Currency of France 500 French Francs banknote 

 Banque de France - Billet de 500 Francs

Currency of France 500 French Francs "La Paix" banknote of 1942, issued by the Bank of France - Banque de France
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Obverse: Bust of a Woman draped in a yellow and blue robes, crowned Laurel and Oak Leaf Wreath, holding an olive branch in her hand, symbolizing the peace. The vignette is surrounded by laurel leaves to flowers and olive trees, oak and wheat. Surmounted by two monograms of the Bank of France, center, a composition bouquet of laurel and oak leaves yellow.

Reverse: Profile busts of a young man holding a tool on the shoulder of a young woman with ears of wheat and two daisies stuck in her hair, symbolizing the Agriculture and Youth, all within a framework of olive leaves and oak in the center, forming a cross a composition which fits the monogram of the Bank.

Watermark: Woman's profile Laureate (the Peace) and the monogram of the Banque de France.
The dimensions are 195 x 115 mm.

500 French francs Peace "La Paix" banknote created by the Banque de France January 4, 1940 and was issued on February 25, 1941, to replace in circulation the 500 francs "bleu et rose".
This 500 franc banknote will be replaced by the 500 francs Chateaubriand.
This banknote belongs to the series of notes printed in intaglio and color process, a technique still used today to obtain sharper and relief features. It was inaugurated in 1934 with the 5000 francs "Victory" a general theme to strengthen national cohesion.
The "bleu et rose" 500 francs existed since 1888, which is a record: the need for a new 500 franc note was felt since the end of the war and a banknote trial was launched in 1921 following a theme "Science and philosophy, "a beautifully crafted, signed by the painter Émile Friant. A final type was finally passed in 1939, and 500 francs Peace "La Paix" was created ... during the military conflict with Germany - World War II.
The 500 francs Peace "La Paix" was printed from January 1940 to March 1945 and withdrawn from circulation and deprived of its legal tender on 4 June 1945.
This note is the work of painter Sébastien Laurent (1887-1973) and was engraved by Georges Hourriez (1878 -?) And Marguerite [Rita] Dreyfus (1879-1942).
Polychrome tones are remarkably balanced.

The EURO has replaced the French Franc as the official currency in France in 2002.

Currency of France 100 French Francs banknote 1944 Rene Descartes

France Billet de 500 Francs Descartes

 France money 100 French Francs 

Currency of France 100 French Francs René Descartes banknote of 1944, issued by the Bank of France - Banque de France

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French Franc - former national currency of France until the adoption of the euro in 2002.
Obverse: Bust of philosopher René Descartes seated in a chair and holding a compass. In the background, a Muse holding a large book.

Reverse: Statue of winged Victory writes the word "PAX" (Peace) on a shield. In the background a rural landscape with scene of peasant farmers returning from hay harvest.

The dominant colors are red-brown and gray-green.
Its dimensions are 160 mm x 92 mm.

100 French francs Descartes banknote created on 15 May 1942, put into circulation from July 21, 1944 by the Bank of France. This banknote was issued for replacing the 100 francs Sully. 100 francs Descartes was replaced by the 100 francs 100 francs Jeune Paysan "Young Farmers".
This banknote belongs to the series of notes "famous people" printed in intaglio and color process, a technique still used today to obtain relief features and sharper. It was painted by Lucien Jonas, the engraving is signed Ernest Pierre Deloche.
It was printed from May 1942 to December 1944 and withdrawn from circulation as legal tender on June 4, 1945.

This banknote should bear the portrait of Marshal Marquis de Vauban, on which Marshal Vauban indicates his marshal's baton to toward the fortresses of the Nord and it symbolizes the peace and the strength of our military defense, but an disaster on the Maginot Line, led to the decision of Banque de France at the last moment to replace Marshal Vauban by Descartes.

French Banknotes

1941-1950 Issue

5 Francs Berger    10 Francs Mineur    20 Francs    100 Francs Rene Descartes    500 Francs Jean-Baptiste Colbert    1000 Francs Demeter    5000 French Union

René Descartes
René Descartes ( 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and writer who spent most of his life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed The Father of Modern Philosophy, and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. In particular, his Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments. Descartes' influence in mathematics is equally apparent; the Cartesian coordinate system — allowing reference to a point in space as a set of numbers, and allowing algebraic equations to be expressed as geometric shapes in a two-dimensional coordinate system (and conversely, shapes to be described as equations) — was named after him. He is credited as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry, crucial to the discovery of infinitesimal calculus and analysis. Descartes was also one of the key figures in the scientific revolution and has been described as an example of genius. He refused to accept the authority of previous philosophers and also refused to accept the obviousness of his own senses.
Descartes frequently sets his views apart from those of his predecessors. In the opening section of the Passions of the Soul, a treatise on the early modern version of what are now commonly called emotions, Descartes goes so far as to assert that he will write on this topic "as if no one had written on these matters before". Many elements of his philosophy have precedents in late Aristotelianism, the revived Stoicism of the 16th century, or in earlier philosophers like Augustine. In his natural philosophy, he differs from the schools on two major points: First, he rejects the splitting of corporeal substance into matter and form; second, he rejects any appeal to final ends—divine or natural—in explaining natural phenomena. In his theology, he insists on the absolute freedom of God's act of creation.
Descartes laid the foundation for 17th-century continental rationalism, later advocated by Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, and opposed by the empiricist school of thought consisting of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Hume. Leibniz, Spinoza and Descartes were all well versed in mathematics as well as philosophy, and Descartes and Leibniz contributed greatly to science as well.
He is perhaps best known for the philosophical statement "Cogito ergo sum" (French: Je pense, donc je suis; I think, therefore I am), found in part IV of Discourse on the Method (1637 – written in French but with inclusion of "Cogito ergo sum") and §7 of part I of Principles of Philosophy (1644 – written in Latin).

France Currency 5 New Francs banknote of 1959 Victor Hugo

France banknotes 5 francs note, Victor Hugo

5 nouveaux francs Victor Hugo

France Currency New 5 Francs Victor Hugo banknote of 1959, issued by the Bank of France - Banque de France
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The French Franc was the national currency of France until the introduction of the Euro in 1999 (in full circulation in 2002)
Euro exchange rate: 20 francs are the equivalent of  0,76 Euro (fixed rate of 6.55957 francs for 1 euro).

Obverse: Portrait of Victor Hugo by Léon Bonnat, the panoramic view of the Panthéon at the background.  Banque de France opted for a portrait of the young Victor Hugo by Feuillantines but then decided to replace for the portrait of Victor Hugo in old age from the painting by Léon Bonnat.
Reverse: The same portrait of Victor Hugo and the view of the Place des Vosges at the background.
Watermark: Victor Hugo in old age.
The dimensions are 142 mm x 75 mm.
The dominant colors are yellow-orange and blue-gray.
This banknote was painted by Clement Serveau and engraved by Jules Piel and André Marliat.

5 new francs Victor Hugo is a French banknote created March 5, 1959, issued January 4, 1960 by the Banque de France. In 1960, the new franc ("nouveau franc") was introduced, and worth 100 of the old francs. New notes were issued denominated in "New Francs". After denominations banknote of 500 old francs Victor Hugo was replaced by 5 new francs Victor Hugo.
5 new francs Victor Hugo later will be replaced by 5 francs Pasteur.

The banknote is identical to 500 francs Victor Hugo but includes the abbreviation "NF" for new francs, only yellow cartridges located on the front are now new denomination "5 NF" and "Cinq nouveaux francs", following the 1958 reform.
This banknote belongs to the series of "celebrities" that led to the creation of modern France as a state: 10 new francs Richelieu , 50 new francs Henry IV and  100 new francs Bonaparte .
Printed from March 1959 to November 1965, this notes was gradually withdrawn from circulation with effect from 3 January 1967, ceased to be legal tender on 1 April 1968.

Victor Hugo
Victor Marie Hugo (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. He is considered one of the greatest and best known French writers. In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic achievements. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem. Outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Misérables, 1862, and Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831 (known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame).
Though a committed royalist when he was young, Hugo's views changed as the decades passed; he became a passionate supporter of republicanism, and his work touches upon most of the political and social issues and artistic trends of his time. He was buried in the Panthéon.

Panthéon, Paris
The Panthéon (Latin: Pantheon, from Greek Πάνθεον meaning "Every god") is a building in the Latin Quarter in Paris. It was originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve and to house the reliquary châsse containing her relics but, after many changes, now functions as a secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens. It is an early example of neoclassicism, with a façade modeled on the Pantheon in Rome, surmounted by a dome that owes some of its character to Bramante's "Tempietto". Located in the 5th arrondissement on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, the Panthéon looks out over all of Paris. Designer Jacques-Germain Soufflot had the intention of combining the lightness and brightness of the gothic cathedral with classical principles, but its role as a mausoleum required the great Gothic windows to be blocked.

The Place des Vosges is the oldest planned square in Paris and one of the finest in the city. It is located in the Marais district, and it straddles the dividing-line between the 3rd and 4th arrondissements of Paris.

France money 100 French Francs banknote of 1977 Pierre Corneille

French banknote 100 Francs Corneille 

  French banknotes100 French Francs, Corneille 

France money 100 French Francs Pierre Corneille banknote of 1977, issued by the Bank of France - Banque de France.

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French Franc the former standard monetary unit of France, most French dependencies, Andorra and Monaco, divided into 100 centimes, replaced by the euro in 2002.
Euro exchange rate: 100 francs are the equivalent of 15 euros 24 euro cents (fixed rate of 6.55957 francs for 1 euro).
Obverse: An oil portrait of Pierre Corneille, attributed to Charles Le Brun, before the colonnades in the Opéra of the Palace of Versailles opened in 1682, the project was presented by Monsard; Vigazoni and for the development of theater Chateau de Versailles; Palace of Versailles, Royal Opera of Versailles in Château de Versailles, Versailles, Yvelines, Île-de-France; At the bottom of the thumbnail to the left and right are the flowers and trophies of arms (trophées d'armes);

Reverse: the same portrait of Pierre Corneille in a medallion. In the background - Rouen city view including a Seine and the Cathedral. At the bottom right corner - Corneille's childhood home, and the Courthouse in Rouen (Le Palais de Justice) at bottom left.

Its dimensions are 172 mm x 92 mm.
The two watermarks represent heads of characters from the tragedies of Corneille: portraits of a Roman laureate man and a helmeted warrior.
The dominant colors are red and brown.
The banknote was designed by Jean Lefeuvre and engraved by Jules Piel and Gilbert Poilliot.
Printed by Banque de France from April 1966 to February 1979.

French Banknotes

1962-1979 Issue

5 Francs Louis Pasteur       10 Francs Voltaire       50 Francs Jean Racine        

100 Francs Pierre Corneille

100 francs Corneille banknote was created by the Banque de France on 2 April 1964 and issued on or after January 19, 1965. This bill replaces the 100 new francs Bonaparte and was replaced by the 100 francs Delacroix .
This note printed polychrome intaglio belongs to the series "famous scientists and artists" launched by the Banque de France in 1963 and includes Pasteur, Voltaire, Molière and Racine.
The 100 francs Corneille series, gradually being withdrawn from circulation from 1 March 1985 and is permanently deprived of legal tender on 15 September 1986.

Pierre Corneille (6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian who was one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. He has been called "the founder of French tragedy" and produced plays for nearly forty years.

L'Opéra Royal de Versailles (Royal Opera of Versailles) is the main theatre and opera house of the Palace of Versailles. Designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, with interior decoration by Augustin Pajou, the Opéra was constructed entirely of wood and painted to resemble marble in a technique known as faux marble.
The house is located at the northern extremity of the aile des nobles. General public access to the theater is gained through the two-story vestibule. Some parts of the Opéra, such as the loge du roi and boudoir du roi represent some of the earliest expressions of what would become known as the style Louis XVI.
Lully’s Persée — written in 1682, the year Louis XIV moved into the palace — inaugurated the Opéra on 16 May 1770 in celebration of the marriage of the dauphin — the future Louis XVI — to Marie-Antoinette.
The Opéra Royal can serve either as a theater for opera, stage plays, or orchestral events, when it can accommodate an audience of 712, or as a salle des festins, when the floor of the orchestra level of the auditorium can be raised to the level of the stage. On these occasions, the Opéra can accommodate 1,200.

France money 50 French Francs banknote 1983 Maurice Quentin de La Tour

 France money 50 French Francs banknote 

France banknotes50 French Francs banknote,  Quentin de La Tour 

France money 50 French Francs banknote of 1983 Quentin de La Tour , issued by the Bank of France - Banque de France.

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French Franc was the official currency of France until the adoption of the euro in 2002.
Euro exchange rate: 50 French Francs are the equivalent of 7 euros 62 euro cents (fixed rate of 6.55957 francs for 1 euro).

Obverse: Portrait of Maurice Quentin de la Tour (1704 – 1788) French Rococo portraitist. In the background - View of Palace of Versailles with several fountains that adorn the large basins.

Reverse: Same portrait of Maurice Quentin de la Tour. In the background - facade of the Saint Quentin City Hall (city of Saint-Quentin, Picardy on northern France), his hometown.

Watermark: Face of Maurice Quentin de la Tour from another self-portrait.
The dimensions are 150 mm x 80 mm.
The dominant colors are brown and blue-gray.
Printed by Banque de France from 1976 to 1992.
The banknote was designed by Bernard Taurelle, after a work by Lucien Fontanarosa which was inspired by pastel portrait of Maurice Quentin de La Tour, exhibited at Musée Antoine Lécuyer, engraved by Henri Renaud and Jacques Combet.

The 50 French francs Quentin de La Tour created by the Banque de France 15 June 1976 and issued on 4 April 1977. This bill replaces the 50 francs Racine  and was replaced by the 50 francs Saint-Exupéry .

This note printed polychrome intaglio belongs to the second major series of "famous scientists and artists" commissioned by the Banque de France and which include Berlioz, Debussy, Delacroix, Montesquieu and Pascal.

The 50 francs Quentin de La Tour series, ceased to be legal tender from 30 November 2005: after this date 50 francs Quentin de La Tour can no longer be exchanged against the euro.

French Banknotes

1968-1997 Issue

         10 Francs Hector Berlioz     20 Francs Claude Debussy     

   50 Francs Quentin de La Tour     100 Francs Eugene Delacroix    

 200 Francs Montesquieu     500 Francs Blaise Pascal

Maurice Quentin de La Tour
Maurice Quentin de La Tour (5 September 1704 – 17 February 1788) was a French Rococo portraitist who worked primarily with pastels. Among his most famous subjects were Voltaire, Rousseau, Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour.

  He was born in Saint-Quentin, Aisne, the third son of a musician, François de La Tour, a Laonnois and the son of a master mason, Jean de La Tour of Laon and Saint-Quentin who died in 1674. François de La Tour apparently was successively a trumpet-player for the rifle regiment of the duc du Maine, and musician to the master of the Collegiate Church of Saint-Quentin. He is popularly said to have disapproved of his son taking up the arts, but there is nothing to support that. According to François Marandet in 2002, an apprenticeship was arranged for La Tour with a painter named Dupouch from 12 October 1719, but it is not known when this contract was terminated. Little is known of Quentin de La Tour's background until, when barely nineteen, he went to Paris indefinitely, fleeing an indiscretion concerning his cousin, Anne Bougier; by this age he was claiming painting as his profession. After travelling briefly to England in 1725, he returned to Paris in 1727, where he was encouraged to begin working as a portraitist in pastels. His earliest known portrait, of which only an engraving by Langlois of 1731 is testament, was that of Voltaire.
  In 1737 at the Paris Salon, La Tour exhibited the portraits of Madame Boucher, the wife of the painter François Boucher, and l'Auteur qui rit or Self-Portrait, Laughing (musée du Louvre), the first of a splendid series of 150 portraits that served as one of the glories of the Paris Salon for the next 36 years. Nevertheless, the painter Joseph Ducreux claimed to be his only student (although this is unlikely). On 25 May 1737 La Tour was officially recognised (agréé) by the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and soon attracted the attention of the French court. According to Jeffares, he had an apartment in the palais du Louvre in 1745, although his portraits for the royal family had ceased by the late 1760s. La Tour was popularly perceived as endowing his sitters with a distinctive charm and intelligence, while his delicate but sure touch with the pastel medium rendered a pleasing softness to their features.
  Contemporary accounts describe Quentin de La Tour's nature as lively, good-humoured, but eccentric. In many of his self-portraits he depicts himself smiling out from the frame towards the viewer; Laura Cumming states of La Tour that "where other artists make heavy weather of portraying themselves, he takes the task lightly and seems to have produced more glad-faced self-portraits than any other artist". However, of an excessively nervous disposition (which eventually descended into dementia), and an exacting practitioner, he has also been accused of over-engineering his work, to the point of spoiling it.
  As La Tour's wealth increased from his commissions, so did his philanthropy; he founded a school for drawing in his native Saint-Quentin and donated towards poor women in confinement, and disabled and ageing artisans and artists. He was also advisor and benefactor to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris, and the Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres of Amiens. Eventually confined to his home and the care of his brother, Jean-François, because of encroaching mental illness, he retired at the age of 80 to Saint-Quentin, where he died intestate at the age of 83 (he had revoked earlier wills). Jean-François de La Tour (d. 1807), chevalier de l'ordre royal militaire de Saint-Louis, was the natural heir to his estate.
  The musée Antoine Lécuyer in the town of Saint-Quentin is home to many of La Tour's pastels from his own studio; it offers the visitor not only a synthesis of La Tour's life and work but also a selective and concentrated view of French eighteenth century society and costume.

Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles.
When the château was built, Versailles was a country village; today, however, it is a wealthy suburb of Paris, some 20 kilometres southwest of the French capital. The court of Versailles was the center of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime.

France currency 100 French Francs banknote 1991 Eugene Delacroix

 100 French Francs banknote, Eugene Delacroix - Liberty Leading the People 

France 100 French Francs banknote, Eugene Delacroix 19th Century French Romantic Painter

France currency 100 French Francs banknote of 1991, Eugene Delacroix - Liberty Leading the People, issued by the Bank of France - Banque de France.

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The EURO has replaced the French Franc as the official currency in France in 2002.
Euro exchange rate: 100 francs are the equivalent of 15 euros 24 euro cents (fixed rate of 6.55957 francs for 1 euro).
Obverse: Self-portrait by Eugene Delacroix with his palette and brushes at the foreground, detail of the Delacroix painting Liberty Leading the People - "La Liberté Guidant le Peuple" (1830), Louvre,Paris.

Reverse: the same self-portrait Delacroix holding a quill pen and writing his famous diary. In the background - The place de Furstenberg is famous as one of the most charming squares in Paris, where Delacroix worked and lived at 6 Rue de Furstenberg while he was commissioned to paint murals for nearby St. Sulpice. This was the painter's last apartment.

Watermark: Portrait of Eugène Delacroix.
The dominant colors are brown and orange.
Its dimensions are 160 mm x 85 mm.
Printed by Banque de France from 1978 to 1995.
The banknote was designed by Lucien Fontanarosa and was engraved by Henri Renaud, Jacques and Jacques Combet Jubert.

The 100 French francs Delacroix created by the Banque de France March 24, 1978 and issued on 2 August 1979. This bill replaces the 100 francs bank note Corneille  and will be replaced by the  100 francs Cézanne.

This note printed polychrome intaglio belongs to the second major series of "famous scientists and artists" commissioned by the Banque de France and which include Berlioz, Debussy, Quentin de La Tour, Pascal and Montesquieu.

It was the first French note to be produced with embossed marks (rectangles and points), in order to thwart counterfeiting and enable the blind to read.

The 100 francs Delacroix series, gradually being withdrawn from circulation from 1 February 1999 and ceased to be legal tender from 31 January 2009: after this date 100 francs Delacroix can no longer be exchanged against the euro.

French Banknotes

1968-1997 Issue

         10 Francs Hector Berlioz     20 Francs Claude Debussy     

   50 Francs Quentin de La Tour     100 Francs Eugene Delacroix    

 200 Francs Montesquieu     500 Francs Blaise Pascal

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school. Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of colour profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement. A fine lithographer, Delacroix illustrated various works of William Shakespeare, the Scottish writer Walter Scott and the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
In contrast to the Neoclassical perfectionism of his chief rival Ingres, Delacroix took for his inspiration the art of Rubens and painters of the Venetian Renaissance, with an attendant emphasis on colour and movement rather than clarity of outline and carefully modelled form. Dramatic and romantic content characterized the central themes of his maturity, and led him not to the classical models of Greek and Roman art, but to travel in North Africa, in search of the exotic. Friend and spiritual heir to Théodore Géricault, Delacroix was also inspired by Lord Byron, with whom he shared a strong identification with the "forces of the sublime", of nature in often violent action.
However, Delacroix was given to neither sentimentality nor bombast, and his Romanticism was that of an individualist. In the words of Baudelaire, "Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible."


Liberty Leading the People
Liberty Leading the People (French: La Liberté guidant le peuple) is a painting by Eugène Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled King Charles X of France. A woman personifying Liberty leads the people forward over the bodies of the fallen, holding the flag of the French Revolution – the tricolor flag which is still France's flag today – in one hand and brandishing a bayonetted musket with the other. The figure of Liberty is also viewed as a symbol of France and the French Republic known as Marianne.

Currency of France 200 French Francs banknote of 1989 Montesquieu

France banknotes 200 French Francs Montesquieu banknote 

 Bank of France - 200 French Francs banknote

Currency of France 200 French Francs Montesquieu banknote of 1989, issued by the Bank of France - Banque de France.

Banknotes of France, French franc, French banknotes, currency of France, French printed banknotes, France paper money, French bank notes, France banknotes, French paper money, French currency , France bank notes, French currency history, French currency image gallery, old French currency, collection of French paper money, Billets de banque en franc français, collection de papier-monnaie billets français, Les billets de la Banque de France, Papier monnaie - Billets France.

French Franc - former national currency of France until the adoption of the euro in 2002.
Euro exchange rate: 200 francs are the equivalent of 30 euros 49 euro cents (fixed rate of 6.55957 francs for 1 euro)

Obverse: Portrait of French writer, Charles Louis de Secondat (Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu) (marble bust of Montesquieu by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne), right next to the coat of arms of La Brede Secondat.
On the left side, you can see an allegorical female figure hold a shield symbolizing the Law and a badge symbolizing his masterwork "L'Esprit des Lois" ("The Spirit of Laws" 1748), the major work of the philosopher. We also note two raised dots to facilitate recognition of the banknote by the blind.

Reverse: the same head of Montesquieu and the statue of Sulla. Background in a Persian style; An evocation of the "Lettres Persanes" (Persian Letters) (1721); "Dialogue de Sylla et d’Eucrate" (A Dialogue between Sylla and Eucrates) (1724); The Château de la Brède castle (Gironde) where Montesquieu was born;

Watermark: the same portrait of Montesquieu.
The dimensions are 172 mm x 92 mm.
The dominant colors are green tinged brown.
The design is the work of by artist Pierrette Lambert, who had already created design the 5 francs Pasteur and 50 francs Racine, and engravers Jacques and Claude Jubert Durrens.


The 200 francs Montesquieu is a French banknote created August 20, 1981 by the Bank of France and issued on 7 July 1982. This note was replaced by the 200 francs banknote Gustave Eiffel .
The last issue of 200 French francs banknote, from the date of first issue 1864 "200 francs noir". The choice of a philosophers of the Enlightenment is not new and is a continuation of 10 francs Voltaire banknote.

This banknote printed polychrome intaglio is the last of the second series of "creative and famous scientists" by the Banque de France and which include Berlioz, Debussy, Quentin de La Tour, Delacroix and Pascal.

It is part of the tradition of banknotes "commemorating famous people who have contributed to the formation of the historical heritage of France."

200 francs Montesquieu was printed from 1981 to 1994.
This 200 francs notes was withdrawn from circulation on 1 April 1998 and ceased to be legal tender from 31 March 2008, after which it can no longer be exchanged against the euro.

French Banknotes

1968-1997 Issue

         10 Francs Hector Berlioz     20 Francs Claude Debussy     

   50 Francs Quentin de La Tour     100 Francs Eugene Delacroix    

 200 Francs Montesquieu     500 Francs Blaise Pascal

Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu
Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (18 January 1689 – 10 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French social commentator and political thinker who lived during the Age of Enlightenment. He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, which is implemented in many constitutions throughout the world. He did more than any other author to secure the place of the word despotism in the political lexicon, and may have been partly responsible for the popularization of the terms feudalism and Byzantine Empire.


Château de la Brède
The Château de la Brède is a feudal castle in the commune of La Brède in the département of Gironde, France.
The castle was built in the Gothic style starting in 1306, on the site of an earlier castle. It is surrounded by water-filled moats and an English garden, in the centre of a Bordelais vineyard. Despite modifications over the centuries, it has kept its character as a fortress.
The philosopher Montesquieu (full title: Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu) was born, lived and wrote the majority of his works here. Visitors may see his library (though the books have been transferred to the library in Bordeaux) and his bedroom, both preserved as they were in the 18th century.
At her death in 2004, the Countess of Chabannes, a descendant of Montesquieu and last owner of the château, bequeathed her belongings, including the castle, to the Foundation named after her.
The castle is open to visitors from Easter to 11 November. It is classed by the French Ministry of Culture as a monument historique.

France money 500 French Francs banknote 1991 Blaise Pascal

 Banque de France - 500 francs Pascal

  France banknotes500 French Francs banknote, Pascal 

France money 500 French Francs Blaise Pascal banknote of 1991, issued by the Bank of France - Banque de France.

French banknotes, French paper money, French bank notes, France banknotes, France paper money, France bank notes, collection of French paper money, Billets de banque en franc français, collection de papier-monnaie billets français, Les billets de la Banque de France, Papier monnaie - Billets France.

The French Franc was the national currency of France until the introduction of the Euro in 1999 (in full circulation in 2002)
Euro exchange rate: 500 French francs are the equivalent of 76 euros 22 euro cents (fixed rate of 6.55957 francs for 1 euro).

Obverse: A portrait of Pascal appears on both sides of the note with Gothic Flamboyant bell tower of the Church of Saint Jacques de la Boucherie ("Saint James of the butchery") in Paris at bottom right the and the Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral in the background.

Reverse: At center, the same Portrait of Blaise Pascal identically framed on both sides of the banknote by a colombier of Abbey of Port Royal, Paris and the Chapel of the Abbey, where Pascal retired in 1655 and gave a lecture in 1658 in terms of his work "Apologie" (Apology of the Christian Religion).

Watermark: Death mask of Blaise Pascal.
The dimensions are 180 mm x 97 mm.
The dominant colors are yellow and brown.
The banknote design was created by Lucien Fontanarosa (1912-1975) and the engraving by Claude and Robert Armanelli Durrens.

500 French francs bank note Pascal was created on 4 January 1968 and January 7, 1969 issued into circulation by the Bank of France for replacing the 500 francs Molière . It was replaced in 1995 by the 500 francs Pierre et Marie Curie .

500 francs Pascal is the highest part of banknotes issued by the Banque de France, it was printed from 1968 to 1994 and remained in circulation until 1997.
500 francs Pascal note was redeemable at the Banque de France until February 28, 2007.

French Banknotes

1968-1997 Issue

         10 Francs Hector Berlioz     20 Francs Claude Debussy     

   50 Francs Quentin de La Tour     100 Francs Eugene Delacroix    

 200 Francs Montesquieu     500 Francs Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal (19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defense of the scientific method.
  In 1642, while still a teenager, he started some pioneering work on calculating machines. After three years of effort and fifty prototypes, he invented the mechanical calculator. He built 20 of these machines (called Pascal's calculators and later Pascalines) in the following ten years. Pascal was an important mathematician, helping create two major new areas of research: he wrote a significant treatise on the subject of projective geometry at the age of 16, and later corresponded with Pierre de Fermat on probability theory, strongly influencing the development of modern economics and social science. Following Galileo and Torricelli, in 1646 he refuted Aristotle's followers who insisted that nature abhors a vacuum. Pascal's results caused many disputes before being accepted.
  In 1646, he and his sister Jacqueline identified with the religious movement within Catholicism known by its detractors as Jansenism. His father died in 1651. Following a religious experience in late 1654, he began writing influential works on philosophy and theology. His two most famous works date from this period: the Lettres provinciales and the Pensées, the former set in the conflict between Jansenists and Jesuits. In that year, he also wrote an important treatise on the arithmetical triangle. Between 1658 and 1659 he wrote on the cycloid and its use in calculating the volume of solids.
  Pascal had poor health, especially after his 18th year, and his death came just two months after his 39th birthday.

Saint-Jacques Tower
Saint-Jacques Tower (Tour Saint-Jacques) is a monument located in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, France, on Rue de Rivoli at Rue Nicolas Flamel. This 52-metre (171 ft) Flamboyant Gothic tower is all that remains of the former 16th-century Church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie ("Saint James of the butchery"), which was leveled shortly after the French Revolution.

Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral
Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral (Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption de Clermont-Ferrand) is a Gothic cathedral, and French national monument, located in the town of Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne. It is the seat of the Archbishops of Clermont (bishops until 2002).
It is built entirely in black lava stone, which makes it highly distinctive, and visible from a great distance. Its twin spires are 96.2 metres tall, and tower above the town's rooftops.

Port-Royal Abbey
Port-Royal Abbey was an abbey in Paris that was a stronghold of Jansenism. It was first built in 1626 to relieve pressure of numbers on the mother house at Port-Royal-des-Champs.

France money 50 French Francs banknote 1997 Saint-Exupéry

France banknotes 50 French Francs Antoine de Saint-Exupéry banknote 

50 francs Saint-Exupéry

Pre-euro money from France 50 French Francs Antoine de Saint-Exupéry banknote of 1997, issued by the Bank of France - Banque de France
Banknotes of France, French franc, French banknotes, currency of France, French printed banknotes, France paper money, French bank notes, France banknotes, French paper money, French currency , France bank notes, French currency history, French currency image gallery, old French currency, collection of French paper money, Billets de banque en franc français, collection de papier-monnaie billets français, Les billets de la Banque de France, Papier monnaie - Billets France.

French Franc the former standard monetary unit of France, most French dependencies, Andorra and Monaco, divided into 100 centimes, replaced by the euro in 2002.
Euro exchange rate: 50 francs are the equivalent of 7 euros 62 euro cents (fixed rate of 6.55957 francs for 1 euro)
Obverse: Portrait of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French writer, poet and aviator, author of The Little Prince, a beloved children's book, as well as a depiction of The Little Prince himself. Above the watermark, which is an image of Saint-Exupéry, can be found a drawing of an elephant inside a boa constrictor. This simple drawing is taken from Le Petit Prince. When the aviator was young, he had drawn a boa constrictor with an elephant inside, but only the shape of the elephant was apparent. In the background, a map of Europe and Africa and flying plane Latécoère 28. The Latécoère 28 was a successful French long-haul mail plane and passenger airliner of the 1930s. Its pilots included famous poets and French men of letters such as Antoine de Saint Exupéry and Jean Mermoz.

See Through: When the banknote is held up to the light, on the upper left side, there is see-through register which front and back elements of the motif combine to form the Little Prince standing on his home planet, Asteroid B-612.  

Reverse: Breguet 14 - biplane over the desert with wild weather in the sky - Saint Exupery's aircraft on his mail rounds over the Sahara desert.

Printed in white ink, just below the watermark, is a copy of the ram that was rejected by the Little Prince.As it is printed in white ink, the image is, to all intents and purposes, hidden. However, if the note is tilted at a certain angle, light can be seen reflecting from the white ink and if the note is subjected to ultra-violet light the ram will fluoresce. The inclusion of the drawing of the elephant being digested by the boa constrictor and the "hidden" picture of a sheep create one of the nicest twists to the design of a banknote. The elephant inside the boa exemplifies those people who ‘always need explanations’. The sheep, on the other hand, is not initially apparent and reflects the conviction expressed in Le Petit Prince that ‘What’s essential remains invisible to the eye.’ The two drawings on the banknote are an esoteric interpretation of sentiments expressed in Saint-Exupéry’s work and prove that at least one banknote designer has a sense of the esoteric and, by hiding the sheep, a sense of fun. One can be certain that Le Petit Prince was bed-time reading for the designer, both as a child and as an adult.

The watermark is a portrait of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
The dimensions are 123 mm x 80 mm.

Other security features include: Micro printing, miniature letters the colorless ink pattern, pattern color changing , the transvision and "Strap". STRAP is a French abbreviation, meaning "reflecting strip for copying protection". It's a nice security feature, a polymer strip with transparent and foil-plated areas. It's use in driving the copying equipment crazy when trying to reproduce the banknote, as the reflective properties of the strip's areas are very different. Unfortunately, this feature is quite rarely seen on the notes (perhaps due to the expensiveness of production). The 50 francs Saint-Exupéry is a banknote in French francs with the effigy of the writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This banknote was issued for replacing in circulation 50 francs notes Quentin de La Tour , it was created by the Bank of France on 10 March 1992 and came into circulation on October 20 1993. Emissions of these notes was discontinued on 31 December 2001 when the euro banknotes came into circulation. Like all other franc banknotes replaced by the Euro (500 FF Pierre and Marie Curie, Gustave Eiffel 200 francs, 100 francs Cezanne, Debussy 20 francs), it ceased to be legal tender from 18 February 2002, remained exchangeable at branches of the Bank of France, at the Central Bank of French overseas departments until 17 February 2012 inclusive.

French Banknotes

1993-2000 Issue

50 Francs Antoine de Saint-Exupéry       100 Francs Paul Cezanne   

200 Francs Gustave Eiffel       500 Francs Pierre and Marie Curie

Currency of France before the Euro 100 French Francs banknote 1997 Paul Cezanne

  French banknotes100 Francs Paul Cezanne 

 France banknotes 100 French Francs banknote, Paul Cezanne 

Currency of France before the Euro 100 French Francs Paul Cezanne banknote 1997, issued by the Bank of France - Banque de France.

French banknotes, French paper money, French bank notes, France banknotes, France paper money, France bank notes, collection of French paper money, Billets de banque en franc français, collection de papier-monnaie billets français, Les billets de la Banque de France, Papier monnaie - Billets France.

French Franc the former standard monetary unit of France.
Euro exchange rate: 100 francs are the equivalent of 15 euros 24 euro cents (fixed rate of 6.55957 francs for 1 euro)
Obverse: Portrait of French Post-Impressionist Painter Paul Cezanne taken from old photograph. In the background, a detail from The Sea at L'Estaque (1878-1879), a painting by Paul Cézanne. Above the watermark area is shown a view of the Jas de Bouffan, Cézanne paternal residence.

See Through: When the banknote is held up to the light, on the upper left side, there is see-through register which front and back elements of the motif combine to form the Paul Cézanne's painting "The Card Players" - men playing cards in a café (painted between 1890 and 1892).

Reverse: the main theme is an interpretation of the Paul Cézanne's painting Apples and Biscuits, painted around 1880. In the top left of the watermark, an evocation of the color wheel developed by Cézanne.

The watermark is a portrait of Paul Cezanne.
The dominant colors are orange, red and green.
The dimensions are 133 mm x 80 mm.

Other security features include: Micro printing, miniature letters the colorless ink pattern, pattern color changing , the transvision and "Strap". STRAP is a French abbreviation, meaning "reflecting strip for copying protection". It's a nice security feature, a polymer strip with transparent and foil-plated areas. It's use in driving the copying equipment crazy when trying to reproduce the banknote, as the reflective properties of the strip's areas are very different. Unfortunately, this feature is quite rarely seen on the notes (perhaps due to the expensiveness of production).
The 100 francs Paul Cezanne is a French banknote created on 20 October 1996 by the Bank of France and issued December 15, 1997. This banknote was issued for replacing in circulation 100 francs banknote Eugène Delacroix . It was the last 100 francs banknote before the Euro was introduced. This polychrome and intaglio printed banknotes belongs to the third series of "famous scientists and artists of the twentieth century" designed by the Bank of France and which include Saint-Exupéry, Gustave Eiffel and Pierre and Marie Curie. Design for this series was developed by the French-Swiss designer Roger Pfund who won the currency design contest for the last series of French banknotes. It is part of the tradition of French banknotes "commemorating famous people who have contributed to the formation of the historical heritage of France." It was printed from 1997 to 1999.
It is withdrawn from circulation Feb. 18, 2002 and ceased to be legal tender 17 February 2012, after which this bill can not be exchanged for euro.

French Banknotes

1993-2000 Issue

50 Francs Antoine de Saint-Exupéry       100 Francs Paul Cezanne   

200 Francs Gustave Eiffel       500 Francs Pierre and Marie Curie

Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne's often repetitive, exploratory brushstrokes are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable. He used planes of colour and small brushstrokes that build up to form complex fields. The paintings convey Cézanne's intense study of his subjects.
Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th-century Impressionism and the early 20th century's new line of artistic enquiry, Cubism. Both Matisse and Picasso are said to have remarked that Cézanne "is the father of us all."


The Card Players is a series of oil paintings by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Cézanne. Painted during Cézanne's final period in the early 1890s, there are five paintings in the series. The versions vary in size and in the number of players depicted. Cézanne also completed numerous drawings and studies in preparation for The Card Players series. One version of The Card Players was sold in 2011 to the Royal Family of Qatar for a price variously estimated at between $250 million and $300 million, making it the most expensive work of art ever sold.