1 Franc - Chambre de Commerce d'Épinal [88]

Épinal's Chamber of Commerce resorted to issuing its own fractional currency during the prolonged small-change famine that gripped France after the First World War — a crisis so severe that hundreds of provincial chambers were granted emergency emission rights between 1914 and the early 1920s. Berger-Levrault, the Nancy-based printer with deep roots in official French government work, handled much of the regional output across Lorraine, which gives this series a degree of technical consistency rarely seen in emergency issues.

The JP#56 reference places this firmly within the Kolsky-catalogued French nécessité notes. Watermarked paper on a one-franc emergency piece is a minor but telling detail — an attempt at credibility for a note nobody wanted but everyone needed.