Banknote Billet France 2 francs 1915

This 2 Francs banknote was issued by the Chambre de Commerce de Bayonne (Bayonne Chamber of Commerce) in 1915, in a context of monetary shortage characteristic of the First World War. During this period, many French chambers of commerce were forced to issue emergency banknotes to compensate for the lack of fiduciary currency in circulation, as metal coins had largely disappeared from the economic circuit.

The Bayonne Chamber of Commerce, a major economic institution of the French Basque Country, was among the issuing bodies of this type of emergency currency. These local issues played an essential role in maintaining daily commercial exchanges within the region.

The presented specimen bears the mention « Annulé » (Cancelled), indicating that it was officially withdrawn from circulation and invalidated by the issuing authority.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 to the note, attesting to its definitive withdrawal from monetary circulation. Cancelled notes are of particular interest to collectors and historians, as they bear witness to the administrative process of withdrawing these emergency issues.

The note displays a face value of 2 francs, corresponding to an intermediate denomination among the emergency issues of the time. Its weight is 1 gram, which is consistent with the usual physical characteristics of paper banknotes of this generation.

From a numismatic and notaphilic point of view, this type of document constitutes a direct testimony of the local economic mechanisms put in place during the Great War. The issues of the Bayonne Chamber of Commerce are today catalogued and sought after by specialists in French emergency banknotes of the 1914-1918 period.