Banknote Billet France 1 franc 1915

Remarks:

1 pli

This 1 franc note was issued by the Chambre de Commerce de Lure, a sub-prefecture town in Haute-Saône, on 25 September 1915. It was issued in the particular context of World War I, a period during which many French chambers of commerce were authorised to issue emergency notes in order to compensate for the shortage of metallic currency. These local issues, often referred to as emergency currency, helped to maintain commercial exchanges in the regions concerned.

The note belongs to series AU 146, a designation that precisely identifies its issue batch within the chamber of commerce's production. This series numbering is characteristic of the administrative practices of the time, ensuring rigorous tracking of notes put into circulation.

The presented example bears the mention « Annulé » (Cancelled), meaning it was subject to an official demonetisation or withdrawal from circulation procedure. This cancellation could be materialised by a perforation, a stamp, an overprint or a handwritten mark applied directly to the note. A cancelled note constitutes direct evidence of the administrative and financial procedures of the time, attesting that it is no longer legal tender and has been formally neutralised by the competent issuing or banking authorities.

From a documentary perspective, this type of regional emergency note holds definite historical interest for collectors specialising in notaphily and local economic history. Issues from the Chambre de Commerce de Lure remain relatively uncommon compared to those from major French cities, which gives this example a special place in the documentation of French wartime issues from the 1914-1918 period.