FrenchBanknotes.com Tech Info
I'm including some of the more esoteric information about FrenchBanknotes.com here. It is probably only useful as technical information for those interested in how the site actually works or linking to sub-pages of the site. It certainly is not useful to read this page if you just want to browse through the banknotes!
Site Map
There are five main gallery sections of FrenchBanknotes.com:
- Banknotes of France
- Banknotes of French Community and other countries using French artists or printers
- Banknotes organized by the Central Bank that issued them (the same banknote images as above, but sorted in another interesting way)
- Banknotes organized by the artist that designed them
- Banknotes organized by common design, referred to as Omnibus Issues
There are also other interesting pages less focused on images of banknotes, including:
- Banknote-related articles I've written
- Information, References and Links for catalogs, abbreviations, dealers, etc
- A subject index for all banknotes, in case you are looking for notes on a certain topic
- A listing of recent banknote additions to the site
- A list of better quality world banknotes for sale. These are not the same banknotes as on the rest of the FrenchBanknotes web site, but are from a one-per-country collection
Languages
The site is currently available in English, French and Polish. If you've set one of those languages in your browser configuration, then the site will automatically be displayed in your language. Alternatively you can select a language by clicking on one of the flags in the upper corner of the page. Not every single page has been translated to all languages, and the default will be English if a translation isn't available. Other translations may come in the future if interested volunteers offer to do them :-)
Coding Methodology
All the data for this site is stored in XML, including the banknote information itself and translated text (the bulk of the text on the site). The XML is then pre-processed into new XML files using XSLT to merge and sort the information into a flatter schema for better run-time access. This includes merging country data into a single file, calculating image sizes, creating keyword indicies - all duplicated for each supported language.
The HTML for the browsed pages is dynamically generated via PHP and uses the SimpleXML interface to import the processed XML content.
Schema
Here is the XML schema I'm using for each banknote in the collection. It's not magic, and I'm not saying it will apply to every collector or banknote, but it may be helpful to someone looking to create their own banknote database. Note specifically that the <variety> tag has an attribute "timestamp". The existence of this timestamp attribute means "this variety is in my collection as of this date", whereas a variety with no timestamp is a catalog entry with no banknote in the collection. There are no other fields astide from the timestamp attribute that pertain to a collection (purchase price, condition, etc) that I store. I do have many varieties entered, but do not consider FrenchBanknotes to be a complete catalog for these countries.
| This is a template of what a country XML file looks like for FrenchBanknotes.com. This information
| data is fluid in that I change it at my own convenience; It is not a "standard" in any sense. It is
| intended to model the actual structure of banknote collection and catalog data, and is not normalized
| as it might be in a database.
|
| These XML files are not directly used at run-time, but are pre-processed using XSL and XSD
| (www.FrenchBanknotes.com/XML/banknote.xsl) and XSD (www.FrenchBanknotes.com/XML/banknote.xsd) scripts
| into more useable XML files (one big file of all countries appended, etc). One of the main changes
| implemented by the XSL is to split the original into three XML files, one for each language.
+-->
<country>
<countryname iso="FR">France</countryname>
<countrynote language="en,pl">Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural,
economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world.</countrynote>
<countrynote language="fr">Au cours des 500 dernières années, la France a été une puissance majeure ayant
une forte influence culturelle, économique, militaire et politique en Europe et dans le monde.</countrynote>
<!--
| List of the catalogs used in this country. This allows for display of the country sorted by any
| available catalog using the <varid> for the catalog number.
+-->
<cataloglist>
<catalog prefix="F" author="Fayette">Les Billets de la Banque de France</catalog>
<catalog prefix="P" author="Pick">Standard Catalog of World Paper Money</catalog>
</cataloglist>
<!--
| Signature tables can either be here in the country file or stored and shared by multiple countries
| from the centralbank.xml file with the "import" attribute. The code can handle any number of <sig>'s per
| <signatures>.
+-->
<signaturetable>
<signatures name="Banque de France" source="FrenchBanknotes">
<sigset number="2">
<sig name="J. Laferriere" title="Le Caissier Principal" image="/signatures/fr/Laferriere.jpg" />
<sig name="E. Picard" title="Le Secretaire Général" image="/signatures/fr/Picard.jpg" />
</sigset>
<sigset number="3">
<sig name="P. Platet" title="Le Caissier Principal" image="/signatures/fr/Platet.jpg" />
<sig name="P. Strohl" title="Le Secretaire Général" image="/signatures/fr/Strohl.jpg" />
</sigset>
</signatures>
<signatures name="Banque des États de l'Afrique Centrale" import="true" />
</signaturetable>
<!--
| Banknotes are grouped by Monetary Authority, and multiple authorities can be in a collection file,
| and multiple banknotes of course may be listed in an authority. When sorting banknotes by catalog,
| the sort maintains the groups within authorities, and does not sort the entire country's list unless
| it is within a single monetary authority.
+-->
<authoritylist>
<authority name="Banque de France" abbr="BdF">
<series num="123" title="Provisional Government">1910-14 Issue</series>
<banknote country="France" series="123">
<!--
| <typeid> elements define the "type" of the banknote, and always include a "number". "prefix"
| and "suffix" may be used to address non-numeric types like P-A5 or P-3A. The concatenation of,
| "prefix""number" and "suffix" creates the type, which is split purely for sorting purposes.
+-->
<typeid catalog="F" number="2" />
<typeid catalog="P" number="70" />
<!--
| A <series> denotes a group of banknotes that have something in common (issue date range, issuer,
| etc. If the optional title and text are included, they are inserted in the banknote display at
| that point. Banknote sorts within an authority are made by the series and then the "typeid" value,
| both of which must be integers. So a group of banknote that must be kept together should all have
| the same series number, but then increasing typeid numbers. If there is no series, then the notes
| are only sorted by the typeid, which is typically different for different catalogs.
+-->
<!-- General description of the note including denomination, face and back, and relevant links -->
<description>
<denomination units="Francs">5</denomination>
<!-- date of official approval to print and release this banknote. ISO yyyy-mm-dd format -->
<releasedate>1929-5-20</releasedate>
<!-- omnibus name if this is a common design issued across more than one country -->
<omnibus>Marianne Issues</omnibus>
<!-- title is displayed on the thumbnail page as the name of this note. The detail attribute is
displayed as the tooltip on hover, the url is displayed on click. -->
<title url="http://www.frenchbanknotes.com/articles/walhain.php" detail="Marianne de Walhain">Violet</title>
<!-- face and back titles are displayed on the detail page under the short title -->
<faced language="fr">La France (Marianne)</faced>
<faced language="en,pl">Allegory of France (Marianne)</faced>
<backd>Dock worker carrying a sack up a ladder</backd>
<like pre="{X{elike2a}}" catalog="P" number="71" post="but in blue"/> <!-- <like> can also appear in the description element of a variety -->
</description>
<!-- Technical notes about the printing of this banknote -->
<print>
<printer>BdF</printer>
<color>Blue on Lt. Pink</color>
<medium>Paper</medium>
<size units="mm" w="125" h="80" />
<method>Litho</method>
<security> <!-- many security elements here, inc <watermark>, <cds>, <embossing>, <thread>, <uv>, etc -->
<watermark caption="Bust of Marseillaise"/>
</security>
<overprint pre="10NF overprint on" country="{R{Old Francs}}" type="F" number="1" /> <!-- <overprint> can also be inside <variety> -->
</print>
<!--
| Artists, and the "type" (usually one of INV, DEL, SC, FEC but can be any text) are listed here.
+-->
<artists>
<artist side="face" type="inv">Chazal, C.</artist>
<artist side="back" type="fec">Duval, G.</artist>
</artists>
<!--
| Any other images relating to the banknote may be put here. Watermarks, close-ups of varieties, etc.
| The "type" attribute may be any string, it will appear above the displayed image on detail pages. The
| "caption" will appear below the image.
+-->
<otherimage type="Watermark" image="france/watermarks/f-004-15-w.jpg" caption="Bust of young soldier" />
<!--
| Keywords for the index page. If language is not specified, the keyword appears on all language pages
+-->
<keyword>Marianne</keyword>
<keyword language="en">Ship, Athena</keyword>
<keyword language="fr">Navire, Athéna</keyword>
<keyword language="pl">Statek, Atena</keyword>
</banknote>
<!--
| Each variety (signatures, dates, etc) has a separate section, assuming you either have the
| note (specified by the timestamp attribute's existence) or want the placeholder for the variety
| shown in "catalog view". This timestamp is the only field in this schema that differentiates a
| catalog reference from an actual collection. "catalog" and "number" (and optionally "prefix"
| and "suffix") of the <varid> is what connects the <variety> to the <banknote> type.
+-->
<variety>
<varid catalog="F" number="2" var=".1" /> <!-- varids are the various catalog numbers for this particular variety -->
<varid catalog="P" number="70" var="a" />
<print>
<date tag="ND">1915-7-2</date> <!-- Creation date for this particular variety (typically a new date) ISO yyyy-mm-dd format -->
<signature>1</signature>
<note>First date of this type</note>
<security> <!-- same security elements here as in <banknote>, with <variety> overriding -->
<watermark caption="reversed" image="images/f-002-w.jpg"/>
</security>
</print>
</variety>
<!-- A second variety linked to the same type, timestamped as I have this note -->
<variety timestamp="2010-10-29">
<varid catalog="F" number="2" var=".29" />
<varid catalog="P" number="70" var="d" />
<print>
<date>1928-5-8</date>
<signature>1</signature>
</print>
<images>
<face image="france/images/f-002-29-a.jpg" thumb="france/thumbs/f-002-29-a.jpg" />
<back image="france/images/f-002-29-b.jpg" thumb="france/thumbs/f-002-29-b.jpg" />
</images>
</variety>
</authority>
</authoritylist>
</country>
A Word About Catalog Numbers
As you may notice, I'm tagging banknotes with catalog numbers, and usually multiple different catalog numbers are cross referenced for a single banknote. Some times, a catalog does not include all banknotes for a country. This can be due to a variety of reasons - for example, the notes may have been issued after the catalog was printed, or the catalog may not be a specialist catalog that contains all signature types and dates. I do not "make up" numbers where a catalog hasn't provided them. So if you don't see a particular variety listed on my pages, first check to see if you're viewing that page with the most specialized and current catalog, as it could be that the one you've selected just doesn't list the banknote. Or, it could be my mistake, and I'd of course appreciate an email correction if you do run into such a situation.
Linking to FrenchBanknotes.com
If you are planning to link to this site, thank you! This site is very dynamic; I'm changing not only the content by adding banknotes, but I'm changing the various pages and adding new pages all the time. As much as possible I'd like to avoid causing you trouble by breaking your link, so I want to let you know what types of links are more likely to exist for a long time.
If you just want to link to the FrenchBanknotes home page, a link direct to https://FrenchBanknotes.com is perfect, and the most likely link to always exist. If you want a banner-type link to the home page, I've included one here that you can easily cut and paste into your site.
For more direct access to particular content, you may like to provide links directly to specific pages within FrenchBanknotes. This becomes a bit more tricky in terms of what may or may not change down the road. Here are some example links that should be stable over time:
| https://FrenchBanknotes.com | Link to the top of the site |
| https://FrenchBanknotes.com/france.php | Link to France banknotes |
| https://FrenchBanknotes.com?country=Gabon | Link directly to the Gabon banknotes |
| https://FrenchBanknotes.com?bank | Link to the notes sorted by bank |
| https://FrenchBanknotes.com?artist | Link to the main page of French banknote artists |
You can display the site or specific pages in English, French or Polish, by using different domain names as follows:
| https://FrenchBanknotes.com | View in English |
| https://BilletsDeFrance.com?artist=Serveau | Link to the page of notes designed by Clement Serveau, view in French |
| https://pl.FrenchBanknotes.com/frenchprints.php | Link to the French Influence banknotes, view in Polish |
Copyright
Firstly I should say that much of the textual content on this site is provided by Wikipedia and specialized banknote catalogs. These catalogs are listed in the info section of this site.
The remainder of the content is owned by me, Dave Mills, and largely consists of the various articles as well as most of the banknote images themselves. While linking to FrenchBanknotes.com is encouraged, copying, web scraping or other wholesale extraction of content is only authorized via written permission. Periodically I do get a question about why the banknote images are watermarked across the corner. This is simply due to the fact that I created and own the actual image (ie, I found and bought the banknote, scanned, and edited it) and therefore I own the image and do not give it away freely for use around the internet. I am not of course claiming copyright on the original artwork.