Banknote Billet France 1 franc 1916

Remarks:

2 épinglages et plis de comptage

Date: 12-05-1916

This 50 centimes banknote was issued in 1916 by the Chambre de Commerce de Moulins et Lapalisse, in the context of the First World War. During this period, the shortage of metallic currency led to a proliferation of emergency currency issues by French chambers of commerce, in order to compensate for the lack of money in circulation. These local issues, with modest face values, helped to ensure the continuity of everyday commercial transactions.

The Chambre de Commerce de Moulins et Lapalisse, representing the economic interests of this region of the Allier, thus resorted to this type of emergency paper money. This banknote belongs to series 108, a numbering system used to identify and distinguish the various successive issues within the same series of denominations produced by this organisation.

As an emergency banknote, this document provides direct testimony to the economic hardships experienced by France during the Great War. These chamber of commerce notes are today considered important documentary pieces for local economic and monetary history, reflecting the organisation of commercial exchanges at a regional level in times of crisis.

In terms of its classification, this is indeed a banknote, and not a metallic coin, with a face value of 50 centimes, or half a unit of the French franc in use at the time. This type of regional issue, ephemeral by nature, is of particular interest to collectors specialising in French emergency numismatics, as well as to those interested in the economic history of the Auvergne region and more specifically the Allier department during the period of the First World War.