Banknote Billet France 2 francs 1921

Remarks:

1 plis de comptage

Date: 18-01-1921

The 2 franc note issued by the Chambre de Commerce de Montluçon-Gannat in 1921 belongs to the category of emergency issues that marked the monetary history of France in the early 20th century. Classified in series C, this note perfectly illustrates the post-war economic context, during which local chambers of commerce were authorised to issue their own means of payment to compensate for the shortage of official metallic and fiduciary currency.

The Chambre de Commerce de Montluçon-Gannat, an institution representative of the economic fabric of the Allier department, actively participated in this system of local issues that developed in France between 1914 and the 1920s. These chamber of commerce notes, also known as regional vouchers, circulated primarily within the geographical areas corresponding to the jurisdictions of the issuing chambers.

This 2 franc note serves as a direct testimony to the local economic organisation of the region of Montluçon and Gannat, two towns in Auvergne whose commercial interests were united under a single entity. The date 1921 corresponds to a period when these local issues were gradually beginning to be withdrawn from circulation, as the Banque de France resumed control of the national money supply.

Weighing 1 gram, this note takes the form of a paper document characteristic of the typographic productions of the era. It indicates that it is an issue belonging to a group of notes identified within a distinct production series, thus allowing better control and traceability of the volumes put into circulation by the issuing chamber of commerce. These characteristics make this note a numismatic and notaphilic object representative of French emergency issues from the interwar period.