Billete Francia 500 Francs Colbert - ND (1943) - Proof Specimen

SPECIMEN - PROOF, without watermark. Date OO.00-0-0000.OO. Mythical ticket and missing from most collections, even the most prestigious.
Central perforation at the watermark. Cancel by Banque de France with perforation at the watermark worth cancellation

Jean-Baptiste Colbert (29 August 1619 in Reims, died 6 September 1683 in Paris). Was one of the principal ministers of Louis XIV. Comptroller General of Finance from 1665 to 1683, Secretary of State for the King’s House and Secretary of State for the Navy from 1669 to 1683.
He entered the king’s service at the death of his protector Mazarin, prompting Louis XIV to disgrace his rival Nicolas Fouquet. As an inspiration and promoter of an interventionist and mercantilist economic policy (later referred to as colbertism), he promoted the development of commerce and industry in France through the creation of factories and monopolies, royal and state. He prepared the Black Code, relating to the administration of slavery in the colonies.
Colbert is said to have been inspired by the ideas of Barthélemy de Laffemas, economist and advisor to Henri IV.