Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Franc - Chambre de Commerce du Mans 72
| Issuer | Chambre de Commerce du Mans |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 92 × 56 mm |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Red letterpress design on cream paper, with denomination numerals 1f at each upper corner. The central design consists of an elaborate oval wreath of acanthus leaves and fruit clusters enclosing a six-line guarantee text in script lettering, surmounted by a cartouche bearing the validity dates 1917–1922. The series designation 2ème Série appears vertically in the lower left and right margins, with the printer's imprint at the foot. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Watermark |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Chambres de Commerce emergency issues of 1914–1922 exist because the French government's wartime coin requisitions — copper and nickel pulled for shell casings — created an immediate small-change crisis. Regional chambers were authorized to fill the gap, and dozens did, each printing their own fractional notes. The Le Mans chamber's series is among the more prolific, with Monnoyer printing multiple date variants under the same Pick references, which accounts for the four suffix numbers consolidated under JP#69-12 through 15.
Monnoyer was a long-established Le Mans press, not a specialized security printer, so the watermark is the primary — and fairly modest — anti-counterfeiting measure.