1 franc - Chambre de Commerce de Clermont-Ferrand, Issoire [63]

French chambers of commerce became de facto monetary authorities after August 1914, when the wartime coin shortage drove small change almost entirely out of circulation. The Clermont-Ferrand and Issoire chamber was one of dozens that stepped in with locally printed emergency fractional notes — a stopgap that then dragged on for over a decade as France struggled to restore metallic coinage. Mont-Louis, the Clermont-Ferrand printer responsible for this series, was a regional house rather than a specialist security printer, which shows in the relatively modest production quality compared to chambers that contracted with Paris firms.