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1 Franc Red and blue
| Issuer | Chambre de Commerce de Constantine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
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| Value | 1 Franc |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress in red and black over a blue underprint. A vignette of a seated allegorical woman holding a caduceus appears at left, with the municipal coat of arms at right. The denomination and issuing authority are set within a decorative border frame. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE DE CONSTANTINE DÉLIBÉRATION DE 13 AVRIL 1920 UN FRANC Le Président 1F. IMP. J. CARBONEL ALGER |
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| Comments |
Constantine's Chamber of Commerce resorted to issuing its own emergency fractional notes in 1920 because the postwar coin shortage in French Algeria had become genuinely disruptive to retail commerce — small denominations had effectively vanished from circulation. Chambers of Commerce across Algeria and metropolitan France were authorized to fill the gap, producing a patchwork of locally issued scrip that varied widely in quality and staying power.
Jules Carbonel was the dominant commercial printer in Algiers during this period, handling a significant share of the Algerian chamber notes. The two-color printing — red and blue — was a deliberate anti-counterfeiting measure on a note that would otherwise have been trivially simple to reproduce.