1 Franc - Chambre de commerce d'Angoulème [16]

French chambers of commerce were authorized to issue emergency small-denomination notes in August 1914, after the mobilization triggered an immediate hoarding crisis that drained coins from circulation almost overnight. Angoulême's chamber was among the earliest to act, and the Keller Frères printing house — a local firm, not a specialist security printer — handled production entirely in-house. That domestic arrangement, common to many provincial issues, means print quality and registration consistency vary noticeably across surviving examples.

The watermark is the primary security feature, modest by any standard, but typical of what a regional commercial printer could reasonably deliver under wartime constraints.