Algeria is a North African country with a Mediterranean coastline and a Saharan desert interior. The capital and most populous city is Algiers, located in the far north of the country. The country is a semi-presidential republic consisting of 48 provinces and 1,541 communes (counties).

With the 16th largest oil reserves in the world, the second largest in Africa and the 9th largest reserves of natural gas, Algeria supplies large amounts of natural gas to Europe, and energy exports are the backbone of the economy.

Algeria is classified as an upper middle income country by the World Bank. Though Algeria's current currency is the Dinar, the franc was the currency of Algeria between 1848 and 1964. It was subdivided into 100 centimes.

The Banque d'Algérie introduced its first notes in 1861. Denominations of 5, 10, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 francs were introduced by 1873 although the 10-franc note was issued only in 1871. Today we are discussing a 50 Francs banknote of Algeria issued from 1920 to 1938. The note specifications are as follows:

The obverse has Cactus and palmate plants; and Coastal city view. The reverse features a woman holding a cotton ball and a bird and a child picking citrus fruits. This note has green, blue and olive as its predominant colours and has an Algerian woman in traditional dress and Arab script as the watermark.

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