100 Rupees 1986, Mauritius
| in Krause book | Number: P38 |
| Years of issue: | 1986 |
| Edition: | |
| Signatures: | Governor: Mr. Indurduth Ramphul, Managing Director: Mr. Ranapartab Tacouri |
| Serie: | 1985 - 1991 Issue |
| Specimen of: | 1985 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 162 x 70 |
| Printer: | Bradbury, Wilkinson & Company Limited, New Malden |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
The Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Its closest genetic relative was the also extinct Rodrigues Solitaire, the two forming the subfamily Raphinae of the family of pigeons and doves.
The closest living relative of the Dodo is the Nicobar Pigeon. A white Dodo was once incorrectly thought to have existed on the nearby island of Réunion.
Subfossil remains show the Dodo was about 1 meter (3.3 feet) tall and may have weighed 10-18 kg. (22-40 lb.) in the wild. The Dodo's appearance in life is evidenced only by drawings, paintings and written accounts from the XVII century.
Avers:
On banknote, right of center, is the Government House in Port Louis, Mauritius.
The Government House in Port Louis is one of the oldest building we can find still standing graciously and dates back since the French colony. Whilst it wasn’t originally like it looks today, the Government House began construction under the first french governors of the island, namely Nicolas de Maupin (1729–1735) and Mahé de Labourdonnais (1735–1746) and served as the residence of the latter. It served as the venue for the Governor’s official business, as well as the many receptions and functions hosted by the occupant.
Mahé de La Bourdonnais established Port Louis as a naval base and a shipbuilding centre. Under his governorship, numerous buildings were built, a number of which still stand today: part of Government House, the Chateau de Mon Plaisir at Pamplemousses and the Line Barracks. The island was under the administration of the French East India Company which maintained its presence until 1767.
Originally the building consisted of a wooden compartment covered with palm leaves and in time this structure was replaced by a one-storey building during the times of Nicolas de Maupin. Mahé de Labourdonnais later converted this part into a larger surface area at the ground floor in 1738 and the building was then named Hôtel du Gouvernement. With time and under the colonies of both the french and the british the building knew even more changes and additions to take the final form of what we know today. The front view of the Government House lands on the Place D’Armes and the harbour, and can be said to be the heart of the city. (vintagemauritius.org)
The name to the city was given by the Governor De Nyon, it is mainly said the city has been named in honour of the King Louis XV and others say that it is in memory of the Port Louis Brittany.
Also, on banknote can be seen 2 statues, installed in front of Government House - to HM The Queen Victoria and to colonial administrator Sir William Stevenson (behind Queens statue).
More about these 2 monuments:
The monument to Sir William Stevenson - the 9th Governor of Mauritius from 20 September 1857 to 9 January 1863.
Bronze statue, made by Mauritius sculptor Prosper d’Épinay (1836-1914), finished in 1864.
The monument to Sir William Stevenson was installed in 1864.
Sir William Stevenson KCB (1805 - 9 February 1863) was a Jamaican-born British colonial administrator who served as the 9th Governor of Mauritius from 20 September 1857 to 9 January 1863.
He was born to one of the oldest English families on Jamaica. He was the son of William James Stevenson of Kingston. His mother (née James) was descended from Colonel Richard James, who was the first person born of English parents in British Jamaica. Stevenson's grandmother (née Lawrence) was descended from Henry Lawrence, President of Cromwell's Council of State, whose son founded a plantation in Jamaica in the XVII century.
Stevenson was a barrister. He first served as superintendent of British Honduras from 1854–1857 before being appointed Governor of Mauritius in May 1857.
He was invested as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1862.
He married a Miss Allwood, and had a son, William Lawrence Stevenson, and a daughter, who married Colonel Sir Francis Marindin. He married secondly Caroline Octavia Biscoe, and their son was Francis Seymour Stevenson, M.P.
He died of dysentery in 1863. 
The monument to HM The Queen Victoria in front of Government House, Mauritius. The inscription on says: "To the memory of beloved and much regretted Queen Victoria Empress of India The Inhabitants of Mauritius".
Many thanks to the following pages for some photos and info:
The coat of arms of Mauritius is stipulated in the "Mauritius Laws 1990 Vol.2 SCHEDULE (Section 2)". The arms were designed by the Mayor of Johannesburg in 1906, Johann Van Der Puf. In the lower right quarter is a key and on the left-hand side is a white star, which are referred to in the Latin motto “Stella Clavisque Maris Indici” meaning “The Star and the Key of the Indian Ocean“.
Blazon:
The armorial ensigns and supporters of Mauritius are described as:
(a) for arms- Quarterly azure and gold.In the first quarter a gold Lymphad.
In the second, 3 palm trees vertical.
In the third, a key in pale the wards downwards gules.
In the Issuant, from the base a pile, and in chief a mullet argent.
(b) for the supporters-On the Dexter side, a dodo per bend sinister embattled gules and argent, and, on the sinister side, a Sambar deer per bend embattled argent and gules, each supporting a sugar cane erect properly.
(c) with the motto "Stella Clavisque Maris Indici” (Star and Key of the Indian Ocean).
Near denomination in numeral (in lower left corner) is the ox cart with - African Zebu.
Above ox cart is Victoria amazonica - a species of flowering plant, the largest of the Nymphaeaceae family of water lilies.
The species has very large leaves, up to 3 m. in diameter, that float on the water's surface on a submerged stalk, 7-8 m. in length. The species was once called Victoria regia after Queen Victoria, but the name was superseded. V. amazonica is native to the shallow waters of the Amazon River basin, such as oxbow lakes and bayous. It is depicted in the Guyanese coat of arms. The flowers are white the first night they are open and become pink the second night. They are up to 40 cm. in diameter, and are pollinated by beetles. This process was described in detail by Sir Ghillean Prance and Jorge Arius. It is the largest waterlily in the world.
Centered, on background, are the leafs of Victoria amazonica in Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden (Jardin Botanique de Pamplemousses).
The Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden (sometimes shortened to the SSR Botanical Garden), commonly known as the Pamplemousses Botanical Garden, is a popular tourist attraction in Pamplemousses, near Port Louis, Mauritius, and the oldest botanical garden in the Southern Hemisphere. Famous for its long pond of giant water lilies (Victoria amazonica), the garden was first constructed by Pierre Poivre (1719-1786) in 1770, and it covers an area of around 37 hectares.
The garden, for a long time was ranked third among all the gardens that could be admired over the surface of the globe’, have been known successively as "Jardin de Mon Plaisir", "Jardin des Plantes", "Le Jardin National de l’Ile de France", "Jardin Royal", "Jardin Botanique des Pamplemousses", and during the British colonisation, "The Royal Botanical Gardens of Pamplemousses" and ‘The Royal Botanic Gardens, Pamplemousses’. On 17 September 1988 the garden was formally named “Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanic Garden”, named after the first prime minister of Mauritius, as was the smaller SSR Botanical Garden of Curepipe.
In addition to its giant waterlilies, the garden also features spices, ebonies, sugar canes, and 85 varieties of palms from Central America, Asia, Africa and the islands around the Indian Ocean. Many trees have been planted by world leaders and royalty, including Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, Indira Gandhi, François Mitterrand and Robert Mugabe.
These gardens are situated in the village of Pamplemousses which lies about seven miles northeast of the capital, Port Louis. Pamplemousse or pamplemoucier is the grapefruit tree (Citrus x paradisi), which grows in the region, possibly introduced by the Dutch from Java.
centered on background, above leafs of Victoria amazonica, are the talipot palms (Corypha umbraculifera) in Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden.
World renowned, this garden is home to native species but also introduced plants from various countries of the world. Celebrate in particular by its giant nenuphars and the talipot and its multiple essences of trees and plants constitute the most popular attractions. The talipot flowers only once between 30 and 75 years before dying. There are currently about fifty talipots of different ages at Pamplemousses, which means that a bloom occurs periodically.
Corypha umbraculifera, the talipot palm, is a species of palm native to eastern and southern India and Sri Lanka. It is also grown in Cambodia, Myanmar, China, Thailand and the Andaman Islands. It is a flowering plant with the largest inflorescence in the world. It lives up to 60 years before bearing fruits and flowers. It dies shortly after.
It is one of the largest palms with individual specimens having reached heights of up to 25 m. (82 ft.) with stems up to 1.3 m. (4.3 ft.) in diameter. It is a fan palm (Arecaceae tribe Corypheae), with large, palmate leaves up to 5 m. (16 ft.) in diameter, with a petiole up to 4 m. (13 ft.), and up to 130 leaflets.
The talipot palm bears the largest inflorescence of any plant, 6-8 m. (20-26 ft.) long, consisting of one to several million small flowers borne on a branched stalk that forms at the top of the trunk (the titan arum, Amorphophallus titanum, from the family Araceae, has the largest unbranched inflorescence, and the species Rafflesia arnoldii has the world's largest single flower). The talipot palm is monocarpic, flowering only once, when it is 30 to 80 years old. It takes about a year for the fruit to mature, producing thousands of round, yellow-green fruit 3-4 cm. (1-1.5 in.) in diameter, each containing a single seed. The plant dies after fruiting.
The talipot palm is cultivated in South India and Sri Lanka. It is also cultivated in Southeast Asian countries of Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and the Andaman Islands. It is also grown sparsely in China.
Historically, the leaves were written upon in various Southeast Asian cultures using an iron stylus to create palm leaf manuscripts. In the Philippines, it is locally known as buri or buli. The leaves are also used for thatching, and the sap is tapped to make palm wine. In South India, the palm leaves are used to make umbrellas for agricultural workers. The tree is known as kudapana (കുടപ്പന) in Malayalam, talo (/tɑːloʊ/, ତାଳ) in Odia, and kudaipanai in Tamil, which means umbrella palm.[6] The plant is known as tala (තලා) in Sri Lanka, by local Sinhalese people.
Denominations in Western numerals are in the lower left and upper right corners. In the upper left and lower right corners they are in Bhojpuri language.
Bhojpuri is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Bhojpuri region of North India and Nepal. It is chiefly spoken in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, in the western part of state of Bihar, and the northwestern part of Jharkhand in India. Bhojpuri is also spoken widely in Guyana, Suriname, Fiji, and Mauritius. It is one of the national languages of Guyana, Fiji, and Suriname.
The variant of Bhojpuri of the Indo-Surinamese is also referred to as Sarnami Hindustani, Sarnami Hindi or just Sarnami and has experienced considerable Creole and Dutch lexical influence. More Indians in Suriname know Bhojpuri, whereas in Guyana and Trinidad the language is largely forgotten. In Mauritius a dialect of Bhojpuri remains in use, and it is locally called Bojpury.
Revers:
the main image on banknote is - Landscape of the Central Plateau over Plaine Champagne with the Coloured Earth near Chamarel Falls and a view of Montagne du Rempart.
Now, more exactly:
Landscape of the Central Plateau over Plaine Champagne with Seven Coloured Earths, near the Chamarel waterfall (left).
Plaine Champagne - plateau, the highest point of which reaches 750 meters. These are the main fertile lands of Mauritius. It is worth staying in front of the waterfall, then, from the high ledge, you can see the south, up to the sea, and from the observation platform of the national park you can see a stunning panorama of the entire reserve, the view of the ocean, the du Rempart mountain range and the sugar cane plantation. The plateau plummets off at the southern coast, and ocean waves furiously beat against the rocks of black basalt. This is the patrimony of Mauritian fishermen. Their picturesque villages are scattered between Morne and Suyak.
The Seven Coloured Earths are a geological formation and prominent tourist attraction found in the Chamarel plain of the Rivière Noire District in south-western Mauritius. It is a relatively small area of sand dunes comprising sand of seven distinct colours (approximately red, brown, violet, green, blue, purple and yellow). The main feature of the place is that since these differently coloured sands spontaneously settle in different layers, dunes acquire a surrealistic, striped colouring. Another interesting feature of Chamarel's Coloured Earths is that the dunes seemingly never erode, in spite of Mauritius' torrential tropical rains.
The geological formation is a prominent tourist attraction found in the Chamarel plain of the Rivière Noire District in south-western Mauritius. It is a relatively small area of sand dunes comprising sand of seven distinct colours (approximately red, brown, violet, green, blue, purple and yellow). The main feature of the place is that since these differently coloured sands spontaneously settle in different layers, dunes acquire a surrealistic, striped colouring. Another interesting feature of Chamarel's Coloured Earths is that the dunes seemingly never erode, in spite of Mauritius' torrential tropical rains. Since the earth was first exposed, rains have carved beautiful patterns into the hillside, creating an effect of earthen meringue.
The sands formed from the decomposition of volcanic rock (basalt) gullies into clay, further transformed into ferralitic soil by total hydrolysis; the two main elements of the resulting soil, iron and aluminium, are responsible for red/anthracite and blue/purplish colours respectively. The different shades of colour are believed to be a consequence of the molten volcanic rock cooling down at different external temperatures (hence rates), but the causes of their consistent spontaneous separation are yet to be fully clarified.
The name "Seven Coloured Earth(s)" is a descriptive, rather than an official name. Sources report many variations of this name, including "Chamarel Seven Coloured Earths", "Chamarel Coloured Earth(s)", "Coloured Earth", and Terres des Sept Couleurs in French.
This phenomenon can also be observed, on a smaller scale, if one takes a handful of sands of different colours and mixes them together, as they'll eventually separate into a layered spectrum.
On background, centered, is Mountain du Rempart (Montagne du Rempart).
The height - 777 meters. It is located in a remote area of the island - Tamarin. This mountain is one of the main symbols of Mauritius.
In lower right corner is Giant Cabuya, Green-aloe or Mauritius-hemp (Furcraea foetida).
It is a species of flowering plant native to the Caribbean and northern South America. It is widely cultivated and reportedly naturalized in many places (India, parts of Africa, Portugal, Australia, Thailand, Florida, and many oceanic islands).
Furcraea foetida is an evergreen perennial subshrub, stemless or with a short stem up to 1 m. tall. The leaves are sword-shaped, 1-1.8 m. long and 10-15 cm. broad at their widest point, narrowing to 6-7 cm broad at the leaf base, and to a sharp spine tip at the apex; the margins are entire or with a few hooked spines. The flowers are greenish to creamy white, 4 cm. long, and strongly scented; they are produced on a large inflorescence up to 7.5 m. tall.
The plant is cultivated in subtropical and tropical regions for products and as an ornamental plant for gardens. Its leaves are used to produce a natural fiber similar to sisal (please see description of 20 Shillings 1968 Kenya).
Also, in all corners, are the branches of Coffea.
Coffea is a genus of flowering plants whose seeds, called coffee beans, are used to make various coffee beverages and products. It is a member of the family Rubiaceae. They are shrubs or small trees native to tropical and southern Africa and tropical Asia. Coffee ranks as one of the world's most valuable and widely traded commodity crops and is an important export product of several countries, including those in Central and South America, the Caribbean and Africa.
Denominations in Bhojpuri language are in the lower right and top left corners. In the top right and lower left corners - in Western numerals.
Comments:
The image of the Dodo is present on some coins of Mauritius. I have one such coin. It is 200 Rupees 2007, dedicated to the 40th Anniversary of Bank of Mauritius.
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