Banknote Billet France 50 centimes 1920

Remarks:

Pliure, salissure

This 50 centimes note was issued by the Chambre de Commerce d'Évreux in 1920, in the department of Eure, in Normandy. It bears the serial number 1,279,805, allowing its precise identification among all the issues of this series.

Emergency notes issued by French chambers of commerce multiplied during and after World War I, in response to the shortage of small metallic coinage. The Chambre de Commerce d'Évreux was among the many local institutions that exercised this right of provisional issue, authorised by public authorities to overcome the difficulties of monetary circulation in everyday transactions.

These local issues, often referred to as emergency currency or chamber of commerce notes, now constitute a distinct category within the field of French numismatics and notaphily. They bear witness to a particular period in the country's economic and monetary history, marked by liquidity pressures and an urgent need for local solutions.

The face value of 50 centimes corresponds to a denomination commonly issued by chambers of commerce at the time to meet the needs of low-value transactions.

The year 1920 falls within the period of extension of these local issues, which continued well beyond the armistice of 1918, as the normalisation of national monetary circulation required several additional years. This note thus stands as a direct testimony to the economic and monetary conditions of post-war France at the departmental level.