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| Free French Issues of St. Pierre - Miquelon .
St. Pierre - Miquelon are two small islands some 25 km off the Burin Peninsula of southern Newfoundland . Miquelon - actually two islands connected by a sand bar - conprises about 84 square miles, St. Pierre about 10. Both are rocky, the thin poor soil supporting little beyond shrubs. The total population today is something less than 6000, more than 80% residing on the smaller island of St. Pierre and most of those in the port of the same name. French since 1660, the islands have been lost and regained by conquest or treaty from the British some nine times until French ownership became permanent by the Treaty of Paris closing the Napoleonic Wars in 1814. To this day, the islands remain the western base for the French fishing fleet operating on the Grand Banks , their original purpose. Politically, the islands are considered a physical part of France , even though overseas.
Fishing and servicing the French fishing fleet remain the chief occupation although for a brief period it was quite something else. During the Prohibition era in the U.S. , the port of St. Pierre became a hive of liquor transshipment. Since France did not have prohibition, any amount of liquor could be legally imported - it was the "export" that caused headaches for the U.S. and Canadian governments. Funded by gangsters - usually American - liquor shipments left the islands for various quiet coves along the U.S. / Canadian coasts in fast, powerful boats captained by rumrunner "cowboys". Although the times were innocent of radar and satellite surveillance, the gauntlet had to be run through lines of the R.C.M.P., U.S. Coast Guard and American agents of the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, none of whom were reluctant to open up with machinegun fire. Even so, especially with the Depression in full swing, there were no lack of candidate rumrunners since a few good runs could set a man up for life. The whole business came to an end when Roosevelt repealed Prohibition in December, 1933, the island warehouses gathered cobwebs and everyone went back to fishing.
When the Second World War broke out, the islanders - then numbering some 3,500 souls in total - quietly went about their business since France , Canada , Britain and Newfoundland (as part of the British Empire) were all at war with Germany . The situation changed in June, 1940, when France was conquered and divided into two parts, one occupied by Germany and the other set up as the puppet Vichy government under Marshal Henri Petain. The fall of France caused a crisis in the islanders' allegiance, the vast majority supporting the Free French Forces under Charles de Gaulle, a French government-in-exile residing in London . But the island governor, de Bournat, supported the Vichy government, dissolving the Association of War Veterans and arresting some forty members of the newly-organized Fighting French Movement. The movement simply went underground as "General de Gaulle's Legion" and about thirty escaped to Canada in order to join the Free French. The movement had such strong support that some three hundred even demonstrated in front of the governor's mansion ( 14 July 1941 ).
Officially the "enemy", the islands were nevertheless left alone by the Allies who viewed them as small account. Partly. St. Pierre had a very strong radio transmitter previously used to broadcast weather reports to the French fishing fleet and it continued in use. Certainly it was being used as a radio beacon by the German U-boats (as was any radio station they could pick up) but war paranoia soon "detected" rather strange wording in the broadcast reports, suspected as being coded information for the Germans. (Later, no proof of this was found whatsoever). Even so, politics dictated that the extremely easy occupation of the islands not be done by the British or Canadians since this would have badly upset de Gaulle.
But it could be done by de Gaulle's forces so long as the whole operation was funded by the Allies - now including the U.S. since it was carried out a couple of weeks after Pearl Harbour. On 22 December 1941 , four warships under Admiral Muselier of the Free French Forces arrived at the islands, marines quickly securing the governor's mansion and other public buildings without opposition or casualties. In fact, the Free French were greeted by crowds bearing homemade French flags on which the Cross of Lorraine, the Free French symbol, had been painted. Observing all legalities, Muselier held a plebiscite the next day, 98% favouring resistence under the Free French. Governor de Bournat was expelled, his place taken by Lt. Fran ç ois Alain Savary, and a hundred island volunteers returned to England to join the Free French. Until 1943, St. Pierre - Miquelon essentially had no currency of their own. There had been limited note issues of "La Banque des Isles Saint-Pierre Miquelon " in the 1890s and an emergency issue of notes (.05, .10, .25, .50, 1- and 2-francs) in 1920 but all are extremely rare today. Officially , the islands used notes and coins of France ; unofficially , they used similar money to their Newfoundland neighbours - and during the halcyon days of the rumrunners, a lot of U.S. currency.
This didn't really change until after the War. But in 1942, de Gaulle's Free French in England had their own notes printed by the London firm of Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. These were released in several former colonies that now professed allegiance to the Free French (which is to say, most of them). Some of the colonies had some denominations overprinted with their name but many used them as an un-overprinted general issue, St. Pierre - Miquelon among them. For this reason, it was impossible to differentiate among the various releases until some years ago when the Free French accounts were accessed, allowing us to categorize them by serial number.
There were five denominations in all, each of a succeeding larger size as the denomination went up. The 5-, 10-, 20- and 100-francs all carried the central "Marianne" design, emblematic of France , on the face although each within a different type of framing. The large 1000-franc showed a phoenix rising from the flames. The first issue were designated "Caisse Centrale de la France Libre" ("Central Bank of Free France"). The notes and their release dates in St. Pierre - Miquelon were as follow:
Denom. Primary Color Serial Nos., Start and Finish Date Release 5 Francs Red on orange & lilac AA000001- AA030000 20 Jan 1943 " " AA030000- AA100000 Lost at sea 10 Francs Purple on brown & blue FA000001- FA015000 20 Jan 1943 " " FA015001- FA100000 Lost at sea 20 Francs Green on lilac & olive LA000001- LA030000 20 Jan 1943? " " LA030000- LA530000 Lost at sea 100 Francs Blue-green on orange PA000001 - PA070000 July, 1943 " " PA070001 - PA270000 Lost at sea 1000 Francs Dark blue TA000001 - TA030000 July, 1943 " " TA275001 - TA295000 Oct., 1944
In the year or so following the war, a similar issue was again released in St. Pierre - Miquelon . Although the designs and colors remained much the same as the first issue, these notes were in the name of the "Caisse Centrale de la France d'Outre-Mer" ("Central Bank of France Overseas"), the ordonnance quoted on the back being that of 2 February 1944 whereas the previous issue had been that of 2 December 1941. Again, the notes released in the islands can only be determined by the serial numbers; again, there is no overprint to distinguish them. They are as follows:
Denom. Primary Color Serial Nos., Start & Finish Date of Release
5 Francs Red AM000001 - AM020000 3 Oct. 1945 10 Francs Purple 2520001 - 2533120 4 Feb. 1946 20 Francs Green 2509001 - 2509279 22 Oct. 1945 " " 2510001 - 2531200 4 Feb. 1946 1000 Francs Blue TD021001 - TD046000 5 Sept. 1945 " " TD235001 - TD255000 17 June 1946
This last series of notes were not actually of Free French issue and are included simply because of their great resemblance to the "Ordonnance du 2 Dec. 1941 " issue. On 13 November, 1945 , Charles de Gaulle was elected president of the new French Republic so even though they were issued under the authority of 2 February 1944 (still Free French), they were released under the French Republic .
Shown above is the general issue 1000-Francs issued under the 1944 Ordonnance (although the serial numbers show it was not released in St.Pierre-Miquelon). The lower denominations all had a back design consisting of an oval within which was text; the 1000-Franc alone had a sort of propaganda message, showing homesteads ravaged by war as well as in times of peace.
All of the "Marianne / Phoenix " notes released in St. Pierre - Miquelon are fairly scarce and when available, are usually in quite poor condition. Some denominations are virtually unknown in Unc.
Within a couple of years, these notes were superceded by the multicolored general issues of the "Caisse Centrale de la France d'Outre-Mer" but from then on, the notes released in St. Pierre-Miquelon were overprinted "Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon". Since they were general issues, the scenes were sometimes incongruous, scantily clad natives in a tropical background sometimes appearing on the notes that would be released in the fogs and snows of the North Atlantic .
The last notes specifically for St.Pierre - Miquelon were released in 1964. Since that time, the currency of metropolitan France has been used there.
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