1 Franc - Chambres de Commerce de Lyon

During the First World War, the acute shortage of small change across France prompted hundreds of chambers of commerce to issue their own emergency fractional currency — the Banque de France simply could not meet demand for low-denomination coin. Lyon's chamber was among the earliest and most prolific issuers, producing notes across a remarkably extended date range that reflects just how long the underlying coin shortage persisted well beyond the Armistice.

The volume of JP reference variants here — spanning at least sixteen listed types — points to repeated reissues as successive authorizations expired or stock ran low. B. Arnaud, a Villeurbanne printer active through most of the twentieth century, handled the full run.