Billet France 1 franc 1915 UNC

This 1 franc note was jointly issued by the Chambers of Commerce of Caen and Honfleur, two major economic institutions in the department of Calvados. Its issuance falls within the period from 1915 to 1920, corresponding to a context of monetary shortage caused by the First World War. Faced with the lack of fiduciary currency in circulation, French chambers of commerce were authorised to issue their own emergency notes in order to meet the needs of local commercial exchanges.

The presented example bears the mention « CANCELLED », indicating that it was officially withdrawn from circulation and invalidated by the issuing authority. This cancellation procedure was common at the end of the validity period of emergency notes, and generally consisted of the application of a printed or handwritten overprint, or a perforation, directly on the note. These cancellation marks give these documents a particular status in the field of collecting, bearing witness to the end of their legal use.

Emergency notes issued by chambers of commerce now constitute a category in their own right in numismatics and notaphily. They reflect the local economic responses to the monetary crises of the early 20th century. The joint issuance by the chambers of Caen, prefecture of Calvados, and Honfleur, an important Norman port town, testifies to the economic complementarity of these two territories at that time.

This type of paper money document is generally printed on a low-weight medium. The face value of 1 franc corresponded to a common denomination, suited to everyday transactions of the era. The issuance period covering 1915 to 1920 encompasses both the years of conflict and the phase of economic reconstruction in the immediate post-war period.

 

 

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