Banknote Billet France 50 centimes 1920

Remarks:

Plis et 3 épinglages

This 1 franc note was issued by the Auxerre Chamber of Commerce on 15 February 1916, in the particular context of the First World War. During this period, the shortage of metallic currency prompted many French chambers of commerce to issue their own emergency notes, thus helping to maintain local commercial exchanges.

This note belongs to series 145, which constitutes a valuable identification element for collectors and researchers wishing to trace the history of issues from this chamber of commerce. The mention of the exact issue date, namely 15 February 1916, makes it a precise numismatic and historical document, directly rooted in the economic reality of France during wartime.

The Chamber of Commerce of Auxerre, the prefecture city of Yonne in Burgundy, is one of the many regional institutions that played an essential role in stabilising local economic exchanges when the circulation of silver and copper coins became insufficient to meet the everyday needs of the population.

This type of emergency note, issued between approximately 1914 and 1922 by various chambers of commerce throughout France, now represents a numismatic category in its own right, known as emergency currency or chamber of commerce paper money. These documents directly bear witness to the economic adaptations imposed by the wartime context and constitute living archival pieces on the commercial and financial organisation of the era.