b96_6743 - 50 Francs BLEU ET ROSE FRANCIA 1903 F.14.15

In 1914, the printing of the 50F Bleu et Rose was entrusted to two printing companies in Saint-Étienne and Paris. As a result, they issued identical creation dates for non-consecutive alphabets (see 2007 Ed., p.225). Another odd feature is little known about this banknote: starting from 1889, the hyphen used in the dates was always doubled (=). Yet, from spring 1913 to 1927, this hyphen was still doubled for even alphabets but simple (-) for odd alphabets. The checks we made allowed us to situate this change between April 26 and May 8, 1913. The exact date of this change should be determined by reviewing the odd alphabets from this period