50 Francs, Banque de France

This copy

Accession

OM-00169

Serial

Z 011919240

Series year

1993

Actually issued

1993

Signatures

This issue carries no bank manager or cashier signature.

Grade

VF (IBNS)

Folds, otherwise clean and bright. Estimated from the archival scan. Folds, soiling and edge condition are visible at this resolution; paper crispness, pinholes, small repairs and pressing are not.

Estimated value

$3 indicative

Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-09-07.

Dimensions

123.9 × 80.8 mm (±0.5, from the scan)

Themes

ModernLiteratureLe Petit Prince

The type

Type

50 Francs, Banque de France

Portrait

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Printer

Not established

Rarity

common

Inscriptions

Obverse — the counterfeiting penalty

Le contrefacteur sera puni des travaux forcés à perpétuité

The counterfeiter shall be punished with forced labour for life

Symbology

Portrait of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

With the Little Prince and a Latécoère mail plane - the author, his book and his aircraft on the same note.

Portrait and subject together

The modern French series pairs a writer with imagery from their work rather than with state symbols.

What was happening

A circulating national banknote of the modern era: a central bank, a national portrait, and a currency backed by nothing but the institution that issues it — the arrangement every note earlier in this collection was either trying to establish or failing to maintain.

This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 50 Francs, Banque de France in the collection.