Banknote Billet France 50 centimes 1914

Remarks:

Légères traces de manipulation.

The 1 Franc Note issued by the Chamber of Commerce of Bar-le-Duc in 1918 belongs to the category of local emergency monetary issues produced in France during the First World War. Faced with shortages of metallic currency caused by the conflict, many French chambers of commerce were authorised to issue their own small-denomination notes in order to compensate for the lack of divisional currency in circulation.

Bar-le-Duc, the prefecture of the Meuse department, held a particularly strategic geographical position during this period, situated close to the front and along the supply route leading to Verdun, known as the Voie Sacrée (Sacred Way). This proximity to military operations further reinforced the need for functional local currency to support everyday commercial transactions.

This note bears the mention « Annulé » (Cancelled), indicating that it was officially withdrawn from circulation and invalidated by the issuer. This cancellation was a standard procedure applied when emergency notes were recalled, typically carried out by perforation, overprinting or stamping. Examples cancelled in this way now constitute valuable historical records of this particular monetary period.

The note is denominated in francs, the official monetary unit of France at the time, with a face value of 1 franc. Its year of issue is 1918, corresponding to the final year of the world conflict, a period during which these local issues were still widely in use before being progressively withdrawn from circulation.

This type of fiduciary document is of particular interest to collectors specialising in French emergency numismatics, as well as historians studying local economies and everyday life in France during the Great War. Cancelled notes of this type are generally less common in collections than their circulated counterparts.