1 franc - Chambre de Commerce de Lons-le-Saunier [39]

Lons-le-Saunier is the prefecture of the Jura department, and this note is a product of the emergency token currency wave that swept provincial France after August 1914, when hoarding of coins — driven by wartime panic — stripped small change from everyday commerce almost overnight. Chambers of commerce across France were authorized to issue these bons de nécessité to keep local trade functional, and hundreds of distinct series appeared before the Ministry of Finance brought the practice under tighter control.

Papeterie Universelle handled a large volume of this emergency work out of Lyon, supplying multiple regional chambers simultaneously. The watermark is a modest but deliberate security measure for what was essentially municipal scrip.