Banknote Billet France 50 centimes 1914-1918

Remarks:

Plis

Filigrane: feuilles

This 50 centimes note was issued by the Chambre de Commerce d'Abbeville (Abbeville Chamber of Commerce) during the period 1914-1918, corresponding to the years of the First World War. It bears the serial number 238,775.

During this period of conflict, official monetary issues became insufficient to meet the everyday needs of local commercial exchanges. Faced with a shortage of metallic currency, many French chambers of commerce were authorised to issue their own emergency notes, also known as emergency currency or war currency. The Abbeville Chamber of Commerce, located in the department of Somme, in the Hauts-de-France region, was among the institutions empowered to address this monetary shortage in local circulation.

These emergency notes issued by chambers of commerce now represent a category particularly well documented by numismatists and historians, bearing witness to local economic adaptations in the face of the constraints imposed by the war. The full designation of the note mentions 1 Franc - Chambre de Commerce d'Abbeville, although the face value printed on this note is 50 centimes.

This type of note, issued in France, constitutes a historical and numismatic document of the highest order, illustrating the pragmatic response of regional economic institutions to the monetary difficulties brought about by the first world conflict. The serial number 238,775 makes it possible to precisely identify this example within the series issued by the Abbeville Chamber of Commerce, and bears witness to the significant volume of notes put into circulation by this institution to meet local economic needs during this troubled period.