1 Franc

The Banque d'Emission de Lille was a wartime improvisation. When German forces occupied northern France in late 1914, they severed the region from the Banque de France entirely — no notes could circulate in from Paris, no coinage flowed freely. Local chambers of commerce and improvised banking bodies across occupied and near-occupied France responded by issuing their own small-denomination emergency paper, and Lille was among the first. This 1 Franc dates to 1915, the first full year of occupation.

The watermark is notable given the circumstances — maintaining even basic security features under wartime production constraints in a partially occupied industrial city required deliberate effort.