Piastre: coin of Indochinese Federation (1885-1947)

PIASTRE: COIN OF FRENCH INDOCHINA

1 piastre, 1947: Indochinese Federation

1 piastre, 1947: Indochinese Federation

INDOCHINOISE FÉDÉRATION: Indochinese Federation (also "French Indochina"; until 1947 — Indochinese Union).

1 PIASTRE above the image of grain sprigs.

Mint mark "cornucopia" (Paris Mint) and privy mark "wing" (Lucien Georges Bazor — Chief Engraver at the Paris Mint during 1930-1958).

UNION FRANÇAISE: French Union (political entity created by the French Fourth Republic to replace the old French colonial empire system — French Empire).

Marianne (national personification of the French Republic as a personification of liberty, equality, fraternity and reason) with laurel branch.

Initials of engraver Pierre Turin in microtype — P. TURIN.

Paris Mint (Monnaie de Paris, France).

Reeded edge (not more rare security edge).

Mintage: 54.480.000.

  • Copper-nickel: 35 mm - 18 g
  • Reference price: 6$
COIN PIASTRE — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
  1. FRENCH INDOCHINA (1885-1947): piastre = 100 centime = 500 sapeque
  2. BRITISH CYPRUS (1879-1949): piastre = 1/9 shilling = 1/180 pound
  3. EGYPT (BRITISH PROTECTORATE + ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT, 1916-...): piastre = 10 millieme = 1/100 pound (in modern Western numismatics Egyptian qirsh since 1916 sometimes are considered piastres — mainly we are talking about only those coins on which the denomination is indicated in Latin characters)
  4. HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF JORDAN (1992-...): piastre (qirsh) = 10 fils = 1/10 dirham = 1/100 dinar (strangely, coins are issued in qirsh and piastres in parallel: ½ and 1 qirsh, but 2½, 5 and 10 piastres; qirsh = piastre)
  5. LEBANON (FRENCH MANDATE + REPUBLIC OF LEBANON, 1924-...): piastre = 1/100 livre (pound)
  6. SYRIA (FRENCH MANDATE + SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC, 1921-...): piastre = 1/100 pound
  7. UNITED KINGDOM OF LIBYA (1952): piastre = 10 millieme = 1/100 pound
  8. REPUBLIC OF THE SUDAN (2006-...): piastre = 10 millim = 1/100 pound (it is known about the Sudanese coins of 2006 with the denomination "piastre" /Latin letters/, although many sources call piastres and earlier coins of Sudan — qirsh)
  9. REPUBLIC OF SOUTH SUDAN (2015-...): piastre = 1/100 pound
  10. FRENCH PROTECTORATE OF TONKIN (1905): piastre...
It is interesting that in several countries of the Arab world (for example: Egypt, Jordan, Sudan...), the same coins had a double denomination name — piastre and qirsh.
About the name of the coin piastre: the name of the coin comes from the Italian word "piastra" — a tile or plate, since it was this term several centuries ago in the territory of modern Italy that called silver plates brought from abroad, mostly from the Spanish colonies in America — Italian "Piastra d'Argento" (Silver plate).
Gradually, the name spread across Europe to the silver Spanish/Mexican dollars or pesos (equivalent to 8 reals), which were popular in the world at the time — the prototypes of US dollars.
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