0.50 Franc / 50 Centimes Chamber of Commerce of Oran

Oran's Chamber of Commerce, like dozens of French colonial and metropolitan chambers in the early 1920s, was still issuing small-denomination emergency paper well after the First World War's metal shortages had nominally eased. These fractional notes persisted because low-value coinage remained genuinely scarce in circulation — the French Treasury was slow to replenish the smaller denominations, and local commerce couldn't wait.

Moullot fils aîné was the dominant commercial printer for North African auxiliary currency of this period, handling similar emergency issues from Algiers and other Algerian chambers. The watermark is the only security concession — modest, but sufficient for a note few would bother counterfeiting at half a franc.