₣500 — Five Hundred Francs
The artwork
Front: Victor Hugo at the right, white-haired and full-bearded, in the dark coat and loose cravat of his last years. Behind him the Panthéon in Paris, drawn from the flank so the colonnaded portico and ribbed dome both read clearly, with a wheat-ear panel at the left. "Banque de France" runs across an engraved gold frieze; "CINQ CENTS FRANCS" below, dated Q.4-3-1954.Q. Three signatures: Contrôleur Général, Caissier Général, Secrétaire Général.
Back: Hugo again, this time at the left and facing out, set among bare plane trees. Behind him the Place des Vosges: the brick-and-stone pavilions with steep slate roofs and dormers, the arcades, and the railed garden with its fountain — the square where he lived at No. 6, now the Maison de Victor Hugo. A gold tablet carries the Article 139 counterfeiting warning.
In circulation
Issued by the Banque de France from 1954, with dated printings running to the end of the decade. The 1960 currency reform reduced it to five new francs, and the same Hugo design was reissued overprinted as 5 NF before the note was withdrawn from circulation in the 1960s.
Details
- CurrencyFranc (₣)
- DenominationFive Hundred Francs
- Collectedon the France journeys, 1991–2019
- IssuerBanque de France
- SeriesType 1954, Victor Hugo — this example dated Q.4-3-1954.Q, alphabet P.26
- SignatureContrôleur Général, Caissier Général and Secrétaire Général
- SecurityArticle 139 penal-code warning printed on the reverse tablet