Banknote France 1 Franc - City of Saint-Quentin - 13-02-1915 - Serial A

Remarks:

plis, salissures, coupures en marge, trou central

This banknote with a face value of 1 franc was issued by the City of Saint-Quentin, a municipality in the department of Aisne, and bears the date of 13 February 1915. It belongs to series A and constitutes a representative example of local monetary issues produced during the First World War.

It is a war bond, a category of emergency currency put into circulation by municipalities, chambers of commerce or private establishments in order to offset the shortage of metallic currency caused by the conflict. From the very beginning of hostilities in 1914, the hoarding of coins and the economic disruptions brought about by the war led to a scarcity of currency in circulation, forcing numerous local entities to issue their own means of payment in the form of notes or bonds.

Saint-Quentin, a town close to the Western Front, was particularly affected by military events, which lends this document a notable historical significance. The issue of this bond in February 1915, just a few months after the outbreak of the conflict, testifies to the speed with which local authorities had to respond to the monetary difficulties caused by the war.

From a typological standpoint, this note falls within the category of French emergency issues of the First World War, a well-documented segment studied by specialists in notaphily and numismatics. These war bonds are today collected for their historical and documentary value, with each issue reflecting the particular economic and social conditions of the issuing municipality at a given time. The mention of series A indicates the existence of an internal organisational structure within the issue, suggesting that a classification by series had been put in place to manage the distribution of these notes among the local population.