Numismatic tour of the French colonies: New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Comoros

Today is the penultimate stop on our tour of the French colonies. On this stop we'll visit a few more island chains in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific.

If you missed the earlier entries in the series, they are: Equatorial Africa, Madagascar, French Indochina, West Africa and Togo, Morocco, Tunisia, other African countries and French Polynesia.

First up is New Caledonia. This is an island group east of Australia that first issued coins in 1949. Coins range from 50 centimes to 1 franc, 2 francs, 5 francs, 10 francs, 20 francs, 50 francs and 100 francs. I am missing some from my collection.

 

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Next is New Hebrides, which is near New Caledonia. Coins were issued intermittently from 1966 to 1979 before the country became independent as Vanuatu in 1980. I only have three examples, but the 100 franc is interesting and silver.

 

Lastly, the Comoros are islands north of Madagascar (who knew?). The only French coins were made in 1964 before it became independent in 1975. I don't have the 10 or 20 francs. I'm also including a few from independent Comoros since I don't see these too often.

 

New Hebrides.
1 franc 1970.

 

New Caledonia/French Unoin.

 

New Caledonia.