New Hebrides

The defining character comes from the Institut d’émission d’outre-mer (IEOM) style: vivid polychrome engraving with high-saturation palettes—purples, oranges, aquamarines—applied in clean, layered fields. Vertical compositions carry carved wooden masks and ancestral poles, rendered with sharp line work that gives depth to facial features, headdresses, and wood grain. Surrounding these central elements, dense tropical flora—hibiscus blossoms, broad leaves, and patterned backgrounds—fills the surface without obscuring the main motif.

Fauna appears as precise inserts within this structure. Coral reef fish, including grouper forms, move through open color zones, while tropical birds are positioned against light backgrounds to keep silhouettes clear. The paper itself carries a signature IEOM watermark: a woman’s head with flowers in her hair, finely embedded and immediately recognizable across French Pacific issues.

A key numismatic detail lies in the overprint and text layers. Many designs are shared with New Caledonia and French Polynesia, but the New Hebrides issues are identified by the specific “NOUVELLES-HÉBRIDES” inscription and the bilingual English–French layout. This creates a direct link between otherwise identical designs and turns small textual differences into major collector distinctions.