Cité de l'Économie et de la Monnaie

Alphonse Defrasse, architect of the Paris-Malesherbes branch

Webmaster — 2013-05-14T12:54:48Z

Alphonse Defrasse, the Banque de France architect, transformed the Hôtel Gaillard into a branch of the bank. His work is eclectic, - influenced by Hellenism and the classical style as well as by the art deco movement.

Alphonse Defrasse was born in Paris in 1860. His family lived at 24, rue des Bons-Enfants in a building which, some 63 years later - the irony of history – he would have demolished to make way for the construction of one of his masterpieces, the underground vaults in the headquarters of the Banque de France.

He entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1877, where he proved a brilliant student and won numerous prestigious awards. For a time, he stayed at the Villa Medici in Rome and travelled throughout the Middle East, Italy and Greece, and it was in Greece that he found the subject of one his best-known studies, “The Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus”. In collaboration with one of his co-disciples, Henri Lechat, he published an important work on this subject. On his return from Rome, he started his long career as a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, which still has his plans for the restoration of the Temple of Asklepios.

After winning the Rome Grand Prix in 1886, his career turned naturally to the renovation and construction of civic buildings. In particular, he was the project inspector for the French Natural History Museum's glasshouses. He submitted designs for the 1900 Exposition Universelle competition and received a major award, working notably for Charles Girault on the construction of the inner courtyard at the Petit Palais.

At the same time, he was appointed as head of the architecture and works department for the Banque de France in 1899, barely two years after the decision to create 34 new branches throughout France for the Bank following renewal of its role as the sole issuer of banknotes.

Following his appointment, Alphonse Defrasse worked on three fronts: the nation-wide branch network, the Bank's Paris headquarters building in rue de la Vrillière and a number of related buildings, and the transformation of the Hôtel Gaillard.

The branches

To deal with the extent of the construction work, in 1899 and then in 1905 Defrasse designed two model branches, whose façades and internal layout and fittings had much in common: use of identical materials, a vast reception hall lit by a glass roof, flooring and so on.

With the assistance of inspectors of works and local architects, he built 70 branches or offices and renovated, generally by extending, more than 80. All of this work was carried out between 1899 and 1927. The use of standard plans, while allowing for a degree of diversity linked to the local context, certainly contributed to this exceptionally rapid pace of work.

In 1920, the Banque de France also decided to create three district branches in Paris - Bastille, Malesherbes and Raspail – and to base its archives in Asnières, to construct its branches in Alsace-Lorraine (including Strasbourg), to rebuild branches damaged by the war, and to transfer or extend a number of existing branches. Alphonse Defrasse was involved in all of this work.

The headquarters building

The Banque de France, which occupied a quadrilateral parcel of land delimited by the rues Baillif, Croix des Petits Champs, la Vrillière and Radziwill, had envisaged extending its headquarters building since 1881.

Staff numbers had increased sharply and in 1907 Defrasse developed two projects, for a new façade and a grand entrance on rue de Valois. He had to wait until 1912 before the work could continue, following the sale of rue des Bons-Enfants and rue Baillif. These enabled the Bank to extend the southern limit of its building out to a newly created street, known now as rue du Colonel Driant.

Several more projects were developed between 1914 and 1922 before infrastructure and superstructure studies went ahead for the first time in 1924-1925 for the “new building” to be constructed, with a footprint of approximately 100 metres by 100 metres.

In terms of infrastructure, the underground vaults – which hold France's gold reserves – earned Defrasse an international reputation. Constructed between 1924 and 1927, they comprise a vast vaulted room, buried some 25 metres below ground and supported by a network of 720 reinforced concrete pillars one metre in diameter. Access to the vaults is through the lift- and stair-wells. The striking architecture of the vaults is reminiscent of the hypostyle halls of ancient Egypt (see the article by R. Godillot in Architecture magazine, 15 August 1938).

As to the superstructure, Defrasse's 1925 and 1930 projects, the façades for which were in the art deco style, include a number of design details that are seen in the final construction: a new entrance on rue Croix des Petits Champs, the reception hall, a two-level strong-room, and the courtyard and connecting wings between the new and old buildings.

Defrasse lived to see the completion of the underground vaults but died in 1939. His plans for extending the Bank's superstructure were actually implemented by the architects Louis Faure-Dujarric and Paul Tournon between 1936 and 1950.

The Paris Malesherbes branch

We will talk here only briefly of the Hôtel Gaillard, citing in particular the renovation and restructuring work Defrasse carried out between 1919 and 1923 to transform this neo-gothic ‘hôtel particulier' into a branch of the Central Bank.

The Hôtel Gaillard originally comprised a main building on place Catroux and two wings, on rue Berger and rue Thann, forming an inner courtyard. A monumental grand staircase connected the entrance, mezzanine and first floors.

The peak of Alphonse Defrasse's art is undoubtedly seen here, in the way in which he successfully integrated a branch's functions into an existing building. The monumental grand staircase services the various departments housed in the old public and reception rooms: offices for the director and secretariat, board room, controller's office, cash office … and a new feature, central to the entire branch programme, that he integrated in place of the inner courtyard, comprising a basement strong-room with the reception hall above it.

The strong-room has an entrance guaranteed to fire the imagination of clients: a movable floor spanning a moat (serving as an alure, or wall-walk, by means of a suspended mobile boom), with a recessed door giving access to the vast, two-level strong-room.

The reception hall is on the first floor, over the strong-room. Covered with a metal-framed glass dome, it looks out on to the interior façades of this former 'hôtel particulier'.

Victor-Jules Février had provided Émile Gaillard with an exceptional canvas for his house and to display his collection in the heart of Plaine-Monceau. For his part, Alphonse Defrasse gave the Banque de France a branch whose internal layout and renovation were proof of his remarkable talent.

Today, some 90 years after Alphonse Defrasse's work, the Hôtel Gaillard is being transformed once again, to house the Cité de l'Économie et de la Monnaie.

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This article has been written with the help of the architect Patrick Vivien
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Credits: Portrait of Alphonse Defrasse by Charles Lebayle (1856−1898).

Credit: Banque de France.

Façade of the Temple of Asklepios as envisaged by Defrasse. DR

Interior courtyard of the Petit Palais. Credit: Patrick Giraud

Images in the sections on “The branches”, “The headquarters building” and “The Paris Malesherbes branch”. Credit: Banque de France.

Portrait of Alphonse Defrasse by M. Friant. Source: INHA Library, coll. J. Doucet, 2010-83125 / Gallica

Banknotes from french overseas departments and territories

Webmaster — 2013-05-14T10:16:25Z

Following in the tradition of French banknotes (designed by an artist and presented as a painting), banknotes from the French overseas departments and territories illustrate key events or famous people in the history of the department or territory concerned, or show the local landscape or scenes from local economic life. They are most distinguishable from their mainland counterparts in general by the use of brighter colours and, of course, the subjects of the engravings.

Set up in 1959, the Institut d'Émission des Départements d'Outre-mer (IEDOM) was initially responsible for the issue of banknotes specifically for the French departments of Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Réunion and Saint Pierre-et-Miquelon. Since the currency used in mainland France (the franc and, since 2002, the euro) has been the only legal tender in these departments since the 1970s, IEDOM no longer issues its own banknotes. It now works in three areas on behalf of the Banque de France: it has a central bank role (including the issue and maintenance of currency, in this case euro banknotes, the rating of companies in view of the mobilisation of credit claims as collateral in Eurosystem's refinancing operations, oversight of payment systems and means of payment, and acting as a local relay for the French authorities responsible for the supervision of the banking and financial system); public service tasks (in particular, the issuance of euro-denominated coins, the management of Public Treasury accounts, and acting as the secretariat for household debt commissions and as the observatory of banking fees); and, finally, general interest missions (acting as an economic and financial observatory, a credit mediator for businesses and an information provider to the banking community).

The 100-franc banknote shown here was issued by IEDOM and put into circulation in 1966 in the three departments of Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Martinique. It is an example of a banknote illustrating a key event in overseas history: the abolition of slavery in 1848. It depicts a bust of Victor Schoelcher, who initiated the abolition of slavery in French territories.

Set up in 1967, the Institut d'Émission d'Outre-mer (IEOM) implements monetary policy in conjunction with the Banque de France in the French overseas territories (New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna) and defines the instruments necessary for that purpose. It issues its own banknotes and coins, denominated in the legal tender of these territories, the CFP franc (from the French acronym for Pacific Financial Community) which has a fixed exchange rate against the euro. Its other tasks are comparable to those exercised by the IEDOM in its particular regions, but also include preparation of the balance of payments for New Caledonia and French Polynesia.

The 500-franc banknote shown here was issued by the IEOM in 1969 and shows another facet of overseas banknotes - the representation of various aspects of local life: on the front is the bust of a Polynesian fisherman with a landscape of the Marquesas Islands in the background and, on the back, the head of a young man from Ouvéa in the Loyalty Islands against the backdrop of the Hienghène cliffs in New Caledonia.

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#To find out more:

“Les billets des DOM-TOM” by Maurice Kolsky

IEDOM – "L'histoire monétaire de l'Institut depuis sa création (1959−2000)"

History of IEDOM' banknotes

Circulation and maintenance of the IEOM banknotes

The Schoonheyt collection of exchange means

Webmaster — 2013-05-14T09:36:00Z

On 28 November 2012, Jacques Schoonheyt, a numismatist and member of Belgium's Royal Numismatic Society, donated his collection covering more than 4,000 years of the history of payment means to the Banque de France.

Jacques Schoonheyt, a Belgian numismatist specialising in the study of payment means, donated his collection amassed over more than 40 years to the Banque de France. The collection comprises numerous objects that were used by mankind before the introduction of metallic coinage.

Copper axe-heads, shells, cocoa beans and strings of pearls are just a few examples of objects that have been accepted in different regions of the world and at different times as payment for transactions.

The collection covers a vast period: from 2,000 BC for certain items, through to the start of the 20^th century. It is arranged into more than 100 different categories and will round-out the Banque de France's collection of banknotes and coins.

A number of these objects can be seen on permanent display or in special exhibitions at the Cité de l'Économie et de la Monnaie.

The Banque de France has also contributed to the publication of Jacques Schoonheyt's book, “4 000 ans de moyens d'échange”, which contains numerous illustrations, including photographs of objects from the collection. The field covered by this book provides a real insight into history and many parts of the world. Published by Marot, the book will be available in bookshops from the spring of 2013.

The first European banknote

Webmaster — 2013-04-30T15:46:48Z

Cité de l'Économie et de la Monnaie is to exhibit a facsimile, a gift by Stockholm's Myntkabinettet, of one of the first ever European banknotes – a 100 daler note, issued by Stockholms Banco in 1666.

Banknotes first appeared in China around 1000 AD. They did not emerge in Europe until 600 years later, in Sweden.

As early as the beginning of the 17^th century in the Netherlands, the Bank of Amsterdam began issuing bills to merchants in exchange for the deposit of cash, thus enabling them to trade amongst themselves without having to physically exchange their gold or silver coins, which remained at the bank. However, these bills were not yet banknotes in the strict sense of the word in that they had no impact on the amount of money in circulation: they were simple substitutes for the deposited coins.

In Europe, the first real banknote was issued in 1661 by Johan Palmstruch, the founder of Stockholms Banco, a private bank under State charter. Although the bank continued to guarantee repayment of the banknotes in cash, it no longer maintained strict parity between the amount of notes issued and the amount of cash deposited, as Johan Palmstruch considered it unlikely that all the holders of banknotes would ask to be repaid at the same time. And so the banknote was born, as a complementary means of payment to coins.

17^th century Sweden's monetary history largely explains this relatively premature emergence of the banknote in this country. The abundant supply of domestic copper produced by the Falun mines had led King Gustav Adolph to order the issuance of dalers, large copper coins. Competition from copper producers in the Far East then led to a depreciation in copper's value as from the middle of the century, obliging the government to issue heavier copper coins to maintain the parity between copper and silver coinage. To do so, it forged huge sheets of copper, weighing up to 19kg or more for platmynts, which were worth ten silver dalers. Other sheets, worth two silver dalers, weighed in at more than 3kg. The inconvenient size and weight of these coins naturally encouraged their owners to deposit them with the banks and the banks to initially issue certificates of deposit, as in the Netherlands. These certificates would become banknotes as from 1661, when Johan Palmstruch decided to dissociate the amount of the notes issued by his bank from the amount of cash that his customers deposited.

While there are no remaining examples of the first banknotes from 1661, a few notes have survived from a slightly later issue, in 1666, including the 100 daler note mentioned above.

Excessive issuance of banknotes led Stockholms Banco quite rapidly into bankruptcy. In 1668, a new institution, Riksens Ständers Bank (the Bank of the Estates of the Realm, which would later become the Riksbank, Sweden's central bank) was created to replace it, under the supervision of Parliament. Heedful of the experience of Stockholms Banco, however, the new bank refrained from issuing banknotes until the early 19^th century.

For more information about the Myntkabinettet collections.

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Vidéos (Youtube)

Webmaster — 2013-04-16T14:13:31Z

Youtube channel of the Cité de l'Économie et de la Monnaie invites you to discover his project and educational videos on various economic topics.

Find videos published on the website of the Cité de l'Économie et de la Monnaie, and many other resources selected for their educational value. Reports documentaries, conferences, dramas, animations.

Go to the Youtube channel of the Cité de l'Économie et de la Monnaie

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Photos (Flickr)

Webmaster — 2013-04-16T09:36:39Z

The pictures on the Flickr account of the Cité de l'Économie et de la Monnaie are proposed under Creative Commons license. You can download and use these images in accordance with these conditions.

Visuals of the museum trail

Museum trail (2013)

www.flickr.com/photos/761154…

Visuals of the architectural project

http://www.flickr.com/photos/761154…

Winning project (2011)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/761154…

Heritage visuals (Hôtel Gaillard)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/761154…

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Words and coins, from ancient Greece to Byzantium

Webmaster — 2013-04-11T16:58:02Z

The Martin Bodmer Foundation in Geneva presented until March 31, an exhibition confronting currency and ancient literature.

This exhibition is an invitation to travel into nearly 20 centuries of history (from ancient Greece to Byzantium). It was a dialogue of the coins, which were trading daily means, and texts of Western literature. Thus, the representations on these small objects (gods, kings, heroes, planets, cities, legends …) reflected fundamental questions: identity and otherness link the sacred and faith, transmission of culture and values …

The exhibition was presented at the Martin Bodmer Foundation in co-production with the Benaki Museum in Athens.

More information on the website of the Bodmer Foundation

The Cité de l'Economie et de la Monnaie opens its Twitter account

Webmaster — 2013-04-11T15:51:56Z

Already on Youtube and Flickr, the Cité de l'économie et de la monnaie now offers his Twitter account @citedeleconomie.

To follow our publications, news of the project, events that, for some, we participate (seminars, conferences, exhibitions, …), etc. ..

Feel free to subscribe and retweet!

Posters and logo

Webmaster — 2013-04-11T15:35:35Z

Here you can find the logo of the Cité de l'Économie et de la Monnaie and posters of events in which we participate.

To save the image, right-click on the image and “save as”

Cité de l'Économie et de la Monnaie logo

600 x 282 pixels :

278 x 130 pixels :

Affiches

Exhibition: “L'économie : krach, boom, mue ?” - March 2013 / january 2014:

Exhibition: “Une nouvelle vie pour l'Hôtel Gaillard” - January / february 2013 :

Exhibition: “Euro : l'expo” - June 2011 :

Exhibition: “Contrefaçon” - Avril 2010 à février 2011 :

Press releases

Webmaster — 2013-04-11T15:14:45Z

Consult press releases on Cité de l'Économie et de la Monnaie

A new life for the hôtel Gaillard

Exhibition - January/February 2013

BNF partnership

Signature - January 3, 2012

Launching of the project

Press conference - May 25, 2011

Cité de l'Économie et de la Monnaie

Alphonse Defrasse, architect of the Paris-​​Malesherbes branch

Banknotes from french overseas departments and territories

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#To find out more:

The Schoonheyt collection of exchange means

The first European banknote

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Vidéos (Youtube)

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Photos (Flickr)

Visuals of the museum trail

Visuals of the architectural project

Heritage visuals (Hôtel Gaillard)

#

Words and coins, from ancient Greece to Byzantium

The Cité de l'Economie et de la Monnaie opens its Twitter account

Posters and logo

Cité de l'Économie et de la Monnaie logo

Affiches

Press releases

A new life for the hôtel Gaillard

BNF partnership

Launching of the project

Alphonse Defrasse, architect of the Paris-Malesherbes branch