1 Franc - Société des Bons d'Émission d'Avesnes and Solesmes 59

Avesnes-sur-Helpe and the surrounding Nord département were under German military occupation for virtually the entire war, cut off from the French banking system. The Société des Bons d'Émission was one of dozens of emergency municipal credit associations that formed across occupied northern France to prevent complete economic paralysis — without them, there was simply no circulating money. This particular grouping was unusually broad in scope, pooling the adhesion of multiple communes across both the arrondissement of Avesnes and the Solesmes region, which gave the notes a wider acceptance zone than most local emergency issues.

The watermarked paper was a deliberate anti-counterfeiting measure, notable given the logistical difficulty of sourcing security stock under occupation.