Banknote France 1 Franc - City of Montigny-en-Arrouaise - 08-08-1915

Remarks:

épinglages, plis, salissures, coupures, déchirures, manques en marge

This banknote with a face value of 1 franc was issued by the commune of Montigny-en-Arrouaise, a locality in the Aisne department, on 8 August 1915. It is a war bond note, that is to say a local emergency currency issued during the First World War to compensate for the shortage of fiduciary currency that affected many French communes, particularly in areas close to the front.

War bond notes constitute a numismatic category in their own right, bearing witness to the economic and monetary difficulties brought about by the conflict of 1914-1918. Faced with the widespread hoarding of metal coins and the disorganisation of normal monetary circuits, many municipalities, chambers of commerce and private establishments were compelled to issue their own means of payment in order to ensure the continuity of commercial exchanges at the local level.

Montigny-en-Arrouaise, a small commune in the historic region of Arrouaise in the Aisne, was located in an area particularly affected by military operations. The issuance of this note in August 1915, approximately one year after the outbreak of hostilities, is part of this logic of emergency monetary adaptation put in place by local authorities to meet the immediate needs of the civilian population.

This type of numismatic document holds considerable historical and documentary interest, as a direct material testimony to the economic management of French territories during the Great War. Notes issued by small rural communes such as Montigny-en-Arrouaise were generally produced in limited quantities, making them relatively rare pieces in specialised collections devoted to war numismatics and French emergency monetary issues from the First World War.