1 Franc - Chambres de Commerce de Caen et Honfleur 14

The Chambres de Commerce de Caen et de Honfleur operated as a joint issuing authority — an unusual pairing of two distinct commercial chambers sharing a single emergency note series. These notes emerged from the chronic small-change shortage that persisted in France well into the early 1920s, long after the wartime emergency that originally justified chamber-issued currency. The Banque de France had effectively retreated from low-denomination circulation, and regional chambers stepped into the gap with legal authorization under a 1914 decree that nobody had bothered to revoke.

Printed locally by Les Papeteries de Normandie, a Caen paper manufacturer, the production chain was unusually short — the issuer and printer were practically neighbors.