1 Franc - Chambre de Commerce de Gray and Vesoul

The Chambers of Commerce emergency franc issues of 1914–1918 are among the most geographically fragmented episodes in French monetary history. When the Banque de France could not supply sufficient small-denomination notes to meet wartime demand, the state authorized local commercial bodies to fill the gap — giving chambers of commerce in towns like Gray and Vesoul the unlikely role of currency issuers. Gray sits in Haute-Saône, and the joint issue covering two separate arrondissements under one chamber was a practical administrative arrangement, not an unusual one.

X. Perroux & Fils of Mâcon handled a significant share of provincial emergency printing during this period. The watermark security was modest by any standard — adequate deterrence against casual counterfeiting in a rural market, nothing more.