French India Banque de l'Indochine, Pondichery 50 Roupies 1915 Pick 3a Jhunjhunwalla-Razack 13.4.4 PMG Very Fine 25. An exceedingly rare example from the early French settlements issue. French India is one of the least known French territories, consisting of five cities on the east and west coasts of India. These were acquired over the course of nearly one hundred years between 1654 and 1750. These cities were passed back and forth between the colonial powers several times before being permanently ceded to France between 1914 and 1917. Each of the five cities eventually merged with the newly formed Republic of India between 1950 and 1954. Needless to say, the demand for currency, which was satisfied by an office of the Banque de l'Indochine in Pondichery, was relatively small. Notes issued for use in French India are uniformly very scarce to rare. In regard to rarity, this is the sole graded 50 Roupies without the stamped "ANNULE" (cancelled) registered in the PMG Population Report. Additionally, we could not find any history of this variety crossing the auction block over the past decade. We did offer the cancelled variety, Pick 3b in late 2018. That note earned a price realization of$10,800. With notes from this bank making only ephemeral appearances on the auction block, we feel this eye appealing rarity should well surpass our conservative estimate. Ink and pinholes are mentioned by the third party grading company for accuracy.

HID09801242017

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