1 Franc

The Chambres de Commerce emergency issues from Algeria's eastern cities are often overlooked in favor of metropolitan French notgeld, but the Constantine chamber's 1922 series has its own practical story. Postwar small-change shortages persisted in Algeria well after they had eased in mainland France — coin rarely made it across the Mediterranean in sufficient quantities, and local chambers filled the gap with paper.

Imprimerie Costantini operated out of Philippeville (modern Skikda), a port city about 80 kilometers from Constantine itself — an arrangement that says something about where the functioning commercial printing capacity actually was.