The French Antilles are described as three ‘French overseas departments’ made up of Guiana, Guadeloupe, and Martinique which issued a common currency from 1961-1975. All of these banknotes seem to always be in F condition or worse, so I wasn’t too concerned when I saw this one. My winning bid was $30.99, which is pretty par-for-the-course as far as this ‘country’ is concerned. It seems as though all of these banknotes are quite valued, regardless of condition.

French Antilles 1 Nouveaux Franc from 1961 (p1)

Not exactly a great deal, given that the top left corner is missing, but I could not resist purchasing this banknote given that it was issued in 1901. There are two versions of this banknote: pick 6 is purple on the front, as is this one, whereas pick 6A is red on the front. Both versions are blue-green on the back. But these old Martinique banknotes, I predict, will skyrocket in value within ten years. I’m hoping I’m right …

Martinique p6: 5 Francs from 1901

In an effort to add as many countries as possible to my collection, I have always kept an eye out for banknotes from Martinique, as I do not have any paper money from this caribbean nation. Lots of banknotes from 1944 and on are available, at a pretty hefty price. Even Martinique paper money that is in rough shape has a tendency to go for prices above catalog value. And so I feel lucky to be able to add a 1942 5 Franc note from Martinique, which, though it is only a couple years older than the 1944 issue has a tendency to be much more rare for some reason. I picked this not up for $29.55, which is well below the $75.00 catalog value in Fine condition. I’d never seen this note in auction until the day I bought it. Well, here’s one more country to cross of my list!

Martinique Pick 16b from 1942: 5 Francs