Banknote Billet France 1 franc 1921

Remarks:

Pliure, salissure

This emergency note with a face value of 1 franc was issued in 1921 by the Chambre de Commerce d'Évreux, covering the arrondissements of Évreux, Les Andelys, Bernay and Louviers, in the department of Eure, in France.

Emergency notes are temporary means of payment issued by chambers of commerce, municipalities or other local bodies in response to a shortage of fiduciary currency. In France, such issues multiplied during and after the First World War, a period during which traditional monetary circulation was profoundly disrupted. The Chambre de Commerce d'Évreux thus took responsibility for issuing these local banknotes in order to compensate for the lack of small change in the region's day-to-day commercial transactions.

It displays the typical characteristics of French interwar emergency notes, with an explicit mention of the issuing chamber of commerce as well as the administrative districts concerned by its circulation. These geographical details delimited the area of validity of the note, whose use was strictly local and could not be extended to the whole of the national territory.

This type of banknote now constitutes a direct testimony to the regional French economic and monetary history of the early 20th century. The issues of the Chambre de Commerce d'Évreux are part of a documented and catalogued set referenced by specialised catalogues on French emergency currency, notably the reference works devoted to local and regional banknotes. The coverage of four distinct arrondissements illustrates the importance of the commercial sphere of influence of this chamber of commerce, whose role extended beyond the boundaries of the arrondissement of Évreux to encompass a significant part of the department of Eure.