Banknote Billet France 1 franc 1915

This 1 franc note was issued by the Belfort Chamber of Commerce on 18 August 1915, in the midst of the First World War. This period of conflict had generated a significant shortage of metallic currency in circulation, prompting many French chambers of commerce to issue their own emergency banknotes in order to compensate for this shortage and maintain local commercial exchanges.

This note belongs to series AS 144, a reference that allows precise identification of its issue batch within the overall production of the Belfort Chamber of Commerce. The city of Belfort, a territory with a special status since the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, had its own chamber of commerce authorised to issue this type of emergency fiduciary currency.

The presented example bears the mention « Annulé » (Cancelled), indicating that it was officially withdrawn from circulation and invalidated by the issuing authority. This cancellation was generally materialised by a perforation, a stamp or an overprint applied directly on the note, attesting to its withdrawal from legal tender. These cancelled notes now constitute precious testimonies of local economic organisation during the Great War.

Emergency banknotes issued by French chambers of commerce during the First World War are historical documents in their own right, reflecting the monetary difficulties experienced by France between 1914 and 1918. The Belfort note falls into this category of emergency currency, whose value today is essentially historical and numismatic. The precise dating of 18 August 1915 makes it a particularly well-identifiable document within the issues of the Belfort Chamber of Commerce.