1 Franc - Chambre de Commerce de Cognac 1916

The Chambres de Commerce emergency notes of the First World War occupy a strange administrative niche: issued not by a bank but by a regional trade body, they existed because the French state had effectively abandoned small denomination coinage by 1914–1915, with silver and bronze coins hoarded or melted almost immediately after mobilization. Cognac's chamber was one of dozens forced into the business of money by necessity, not mandate.

B. Arnaud of Villeurbanne — a printer best known for commercial and municipal work — handled much of this regional emergency issue work in the Rhône corridor. The watermark is the only concession to security on what is, bluntly, a locally-trusted IOU printed in volume.