1 Franc - Chambre de Commerce de Bourges [18]

The Bourges Chamber of Commerce began issuing these emergency fractional notes in 1915 as small-denomination coinage disappeared almost entirely from French circulation — hoarded by the public and consumed by the war economy in equal measure. Hundreds of French chambres de commerce issued similar emergency paper during 1914–1918, but Bourges is notable for using a strictly local printer, Vve Tardy-Pigelet & Fils, whose principal name appears in the designer credit as J. Tardy — a family firm printing its own chamber's currency.

The watermark security measure was modest but deliberate, given how aggressively these small notes were counterfeited across provincial France during the war years.