Banknote Billet France 50 centimes 1914

Remarks:

Marques de manipulation

This 50 centimes note was issued by the Chambre de Commerce de Boulogne-sur-Mer on 14 August 1914, just a few days after the outbreak of the First World War. It belongs to series C1 and is a representative example of the emergency currency issues produced in France at the beginning of the conflict.

These chamber of commerce notes came into being in a context of acute monetary shortage. From the very first weeks of the war, the massive hoarding of metal coins and the withdrawal of Banque de France banknotes caused a paralysis of local commercial exchanges. Chambers of commerce in many French cities were then authorised to issue their own notes in order to alleviate this lack of circulating liquidity.

The Chambre de Commerce de Boulogne-sur-Mer, a port city in the Pas-de-Calais, was one of the first institutions to react swiftly to this situation, as early as August 1914. The issue of low-denomination notes, such as this 50 centimes note, was intended to facilitate everyday transactions at a local level.

This type of numismatic document is today considered a historical witness of the first order, at the crossroads of the economic, political and social history of wartime France.

Series C1 makes it possible to identify and differentiate the various successive printings produced to meet growing cash needs, with each series potentially showing slight graphic or typographic variations that are of particular interest to collectors specialising in French First World War emergency currency.