1 Franc Brown

Philippeville's Chamber of Commerce — like dozens of similar bodies across French Algeria — resorted to issuing emergency paper fractional currency during the First World War when small-denomination coins effectively vanished from circulation, hoarded or melted. These chambre de commerce notes were a France-wide phenomenon after 1914, but the Algerian series were printed locally rather than sourced from metropolitan France, which gives them a distinct regional character. Carbonel's Algiers press handled a substantial share of this work across multiple communes.

The issuing authority had no banking powers; these circulated purely on local trust and municipal necessity.