Banknote Billet France 50 centimes 1915

Remarks:

Plis et salissures

Date: 10 Août 1915

This emergency banknote with a face value of 1 franc was issued in 1915 by the Chambers of Commerce of Alençon and Flers, located in the department of Orne, France. It belongs to the series referenced 2-Q-1.

During the First World War, the shortage of metallic currency, caused by hoarding and the need for metals for the war effort, forced many French chambers of commerce to issue their own emergency notes. These local issues were intended to compensate for the lack of small change in circulation and to facilitate everyday commercial transactions at the regional level.

The Chambers of Commerce of Alençon and Flers, two important towns in the Orne department, joined forces to jointly produce these notes designed to meet local monetary needs. This collaboration between two chambers of commerce within the same department reflects the organisational response to the economic constraints of the period.

This type of emergency note now constitutes a first-rate historical and documentary record of the French economy in wartime. The series 2-Q-1 makes it possible to precisely identify this note among the various issues produced by these chambers of commerce, which issued several distinct series and face values to meet the needs of local trade.

These regional notes, issued by French consular institutions between 1914 and the 1920s, attract particular interest from collectors specialising in notaphily, the discipline devoted to the collection and study of banknotes and emergency currency. Their heritage value lies in particular in their territorial roots and in their economic role during one of the most turbulent periods in contemporary French history.