Catalog
1 Franc - Kortrijk Courtrai
| Issuer | Stad Kortrijk (City of Kortrijk) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914 |
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| Value | 1 Franc |
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| Obverse description | The upper-left quadrant bears the city coat of arms of Kortrijk, flanked by two standing male supporters and surmounted by a crown, rendered in green and ochre tones within a foliate border. To the right, the issuer title STAD KORTRIJK appears in large decorative green letterpress across the top, above the central text panel carrying the denomination and redeemability clause, with a large red numeral 1 as underprint on the left. A circular black validation stamp of the city of Kortrijk (STAD KORTRIJK — WESTVLAANDEREN) is applied over the face, and a serial number with letter prefix appears in a ruled box at the lower centre-right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is executed in an Art Nouveau style, with an elaborate symmetrical border of interlaced golden stems and pendant bell-flower blossoms framing the four corners and upper edge. A central cartouche formed by sinuous golden foliate scrollwork encloses the plain text legend on a pale blue-grey ground, with the name and date rendered in large white letters. |
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| Comments |
Kortrijk was occupied by German forces in October 1914, within weeks of the war's outbreak. Like dozens of Belgian municipalities caught without adequate small change — German authorities had stripped metallic coin from circulation almost immediately — the city issued its own emergency scrip under communal authority. These local wartime notes, known collectively as monnaie de nécessité or noodgeld, were a stopgap measure coordinated at the municipal level because the national banking system could not function normally under occupation.
The 1914 date places this note among the earliest Belgian communal issues, printed before most towns had established any systematic approach to emergency currency production.