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1 Franc
| Issuer | Chambre de Commerce d'Alger |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914-1922 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Franc (1848-1959) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE D'ALGER / DÉLIBÉRATION DU 3 SEPTEMBRE 1914 / UN FRANC / فرنك / Le Président / Le Secretaire Trésorier / SÉRIE / ÉCHANGEABLE CONTRE BILLETS DE LA BANQUE DE L'ALGÉRIE / No / IMP. A. JOURDAN ALGER |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in violet, the reverse is dominated by an ornate rectangular guilloche border composed of interlocking floral and Gothic foliate motifs with small circle corner ornaments. The centre field carries a pale letterpress underprint of the text CHAMBREDECOMMERCED'ALGER repeated continuously in diagonal rows, over which the large denomination numeral 1 FRANC and its Arabic equivalent فرنك are overprinted in a lighter rose-violet tone. |
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| Comments |
When French metropolitan banks suspended convertibility and hoarded coin at the outbreak of war in August 1914, Algerian commerce ground toward paralysis almost immediately. The Chambre de Commerce d'Alger — like dozens of French provincial and colonial chambers — stepped in to plug the fractional void, issuing small-denomination emergency notes with no formal central bank backing. These were instruments of commercial necessity, not monetary policy.
Adolphe Jourdan's Algiers press, which had operated since 1871 primarily as a printer of books and administrative documents, did not long outlast this series — the firm closed in 1916, making it likely that later dates in the 1914–1922 span were produced elsewhere.