Banknote Billet France 1 franc 1915

The 1 franc banknote issued by the Chambre de Commerce de Poitiers et de la Vienne in October 1915 belongs to the category of emergency monetary issues produced during the First World War. Faced with the shortage of metallic currency caused by the conflict, many French chambers of commerce were authorised to issue their own local banknotes in order to compensate for the difficulties in fiduciary circulation.

This banknote belongs to series D, indicating that it is part of a successive issue, with the series letter used to distinguish the different production batches put into circulation during this period. It thus represents a direct testimony to the local economic organisation established by the commercial authorities of the Vienne department in response to the exceptional economic constraints of the time.

As a chamber of commerce banknote, this fiduciary document generally bears the references to the issuing body, namely the Chambre de Commerce de Poitiers et de la Vienne, as well as the face value of 1 franc and the issue date of October 1915. These emergency notes were designed to circulate locally and temporarily supplement the missing metallic coins, whose metal was then primarily allocated to the war effort.