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1 Franc - Chambre de Commerce de Chateauroux 36
| Issuer | Chambre de Commerce de Châteauroux et de l'Indre |
|---|---|
| Year | 1922 |
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| Currency | Franc (1795-1959) |
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| Obverse description | Issued in brown letterpress and intaglio on cream paper with a bee watermark underprint, the obverse carries a detailed architectural vignette of a medieval château with towers set above a multi-arched stone bridge and river, positioned to the right half of the note. Denomination numeral '1' appears in circular cartouches at upper left and lower right, with the issuer's full title spanning the top margin and 'UN FRANC' in large bold type at centre. Two signature lines for the Treasurer and President are placed below the denomination text. |
|---|---|
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| Protection description | Bees |
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| Comments |
Châteauroux's chamber of commerce was among hundreds of regional bodies across France that filled the coin shortage left by World War One by issuing their own small-denomination paper. This 1 Franc note, printed locally by Mellottée, belongs to a series that remained in circulation well into the early 1920s — far longer than originally anticipated when the emergency issues began in 1914–1915.
Albert Laprade, better known as an architect than a graphic artist, designed the series. His involvement was unusual for this type of provincial emergency scrip, where design was typically contracted to commercial illustrators rather than figures with serious architectural credentials.