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1 Franc - Chambre de Commerce d'Oran
| Issuer | Chambre de Commerce d'Oran |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Franc (1848-1959) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Green and yellow letterpress note with a lace-pattern guilloche border. The left half carries a pastoral vignette of an Algerian landscape with palm trees, a camel, and a distant view of Oran; the denomination '1 fr.' appears in a circle at lower left and its Arabic equivalent 'فرنك' in a corresponding circle at lower right. To the right, an allegorical group shows Mercury seated alongside a standing female figure holding an urn, amid maritime and agricultural attributes, reflecting the commercial character of the issuing body; the issuer's title arcs across the top on a ribbon cartouche above the large central denomination 'UN FRANC', with facsimile signature spaces for Le Président and Le Trésorier below. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Green and yellow letterpress note sharing the same guilloche lace border as the obverse. The central vignette presents the crowned municipal coat of arms of Oran flanked by two putti seated amid abundant foliage and fruit. The denomination '1 fr.' is enclosed in a circle at lower left, with the Arabic 'فرنك' in a matching circle at lower right. The issuer's name is set in two lines within a foliate cartouche at the top, and the authorising deliberation date is inscribed across the centre field. |
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| Comments |
French Algeria's wartime and postwar small-change crisis pushed local Chambers of Commerce into issuing their own fractional paper — the Banque de l'Algérie had no mandate to plug the coin shortage, so bodies like the Oran chamber stepped in. These emergency notes circulated regionally and were theoretically redeemable at the issuing chamber, though in practice the redemption process was often slow and contested.
The JP#141-27 reference places this within the Kolsky-catalogued series of French colonial and provincial emergency issues. Oran's chamber notes from this period are reasonably available in lower grades; examples with intact watermark visibility are harder to find than the survival rate of the series might suggest.