Description and research notes
Back-side photographic proof from the 1970 production cycle, mounted with pencil annotations and approval marks. Executed in monochrome, it allowed designers to judge spatial balance, caption hierarchy, and vignette proportion without the distraction of color. The detailed cityscape view of Luxembourg is crisply rendered here, revealing framing decisions invisible in issued notes. PCGS 64 Apparent (Mounted on Cardstock).
In the BLEU context, Luxembourg maintained its own iconography within a shared currency zone—these proofs were the tools that defended that identity. They were working materials, almost always discarded once engraving began. Survivors like this serve as forensic evidence of design meetings between De La Rue and Luxembourg officials, and provide the visual DNA later revived in the aborted 1982 series. Unlisted in SCWPM.