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1 Franc Chambre de Commerce
| Issuer | Chambre de Commerce des Établissements Français de l'Océanie |
|---|---|
| Year | 1919 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Printed in orange on white paper, the note carries a central text panel enclosed within a decorative guilloche border with corner roundels. Female allegorical figures lean against arched frames at the left and right margins. The serial number appears in black or red. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | EMISSION FAIT SOUS LA RESPONSABILITÉ DE LA CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE DES ESTABLISSEMENTS FRANÇAIS DE L`OCÉANIE ET GUARANTIE PAR UN DÉPÔT CORRESPONDENT EN BILLETS DE LA BANQUE DE L`INDO-CHINE DANS LE SCOFFRES DE CET ESTABLISSEMENT (LA LOI PUNIT LES CONTREFACTEURS) UN FRANC Halpin Lithograph Company San Francisco (Translation: Issue made under the Responsibility of the Chamber of Commerce of French establishments in Oceania and guaranteed by a corresponding deposit in notes of the bank of Indo-China in the vaults of this establishment. (The law punishes counterfeiters) One Franc) |
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| Comments |
The Chambres de Commerce across French Oceania stepped in to issue emergency fractional notes during World War One because the region's coin supply had dried up almost entirely — metal was needed elsewhere, and resupply from France was erratic at best. San Francisco was the practical choice for printing, far closer than any metropolitan French alternative and home to the Halpin Lithograph Company, a commercial press with no particular history of banknote production.
That last point matters. Halpin was not a security printer. The notes lack the engraved intaglio work one would expect, and lithographic emergency issues of this type are structurally easier to counterfeit — a problem the issuing authority likely accepted as a lesser evil than a coinless economy.