Banknote France 25 Centimes - City of Vertus - 15-09-1917

Remarks:

épinglages, plis, salissures, taches, coupures en marge

This 25-centime municipal bond was issued by the town of Vertus, a commune in the Marne department located in the Champagne-Ardenne region. It bears the date of 15 September 1917, although its initial year of issue dates back to 1915, a period during which many French municipalities were forced to issue their own means of payment due to the shortage of metallic currency caused by the First World War.

This type of municipal bond belongs to a particular historical context. Faced with the widespread hoarding of metal coins and the economic disruption caused by the conflict, towns, chambers of commerce and various local institutions multiplied the issuance of emergency currencies in the form of notes or tokens. These local issues helped to offset the lack of currency in circulation and to ensure the continuity of everyday commercial exchanges.

The bond is denominated in centimes, with a face value of 25 centimes. As a paper document, it represents a direct testimony to the local economic organisation during the First World War. The town of Vertus, then the chief town of the canton of the arrondissement of Épernay, thus assumed a temporary monetary function for the benefit of its inhabitants and merchants.

From a numismatic and notaphilic perspective, this municipal bond is a rare and representative document of French emergency issues from the 1914-1918 period. Municipal bonds from small towns such as Vertus were generally issued in limited quantities, making them highly sought-after collectibles among specialists in emergency currencies and French local issues from the Great War. The handwritten or printed date of 15 September 1917 provides additional chronological precision that further enhances the historical interest of the document.