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1 Franc Commune de Blandain
| Issuer | Commune de Blandain |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Lithographie & Cartonnage de Tournai, Société Anonyme |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is entirely unprinted, bearing only a circular purple administrative hand-stamp applied at centre. The stamp reads 'ADMINISTRATION COMMUNALE DE BLANDAIN - HAINAUT' around its perimeter, enclosing a central heraldic device. |
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| Protection type | Official stamp |
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| Comments |
Blandain is a small village just west of Tournai, and this note belongs to the chaotic wave of emergency municipal scrip that flooded Belgium in the weeks following the German invasion of August 1914. With the national banking system in immediate paralysis and coin hoarded almost overnight, hundreds of Belgian communes — including ones with populations in the low thousands — improvised their own fractional currency to keep local commerce moving.
The Lithographie & Cartonnage de Tournai was a local commercial printer, not a security press. The official stamp was the primary — and thin — defense against counterfeiting.