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1 Franc - Town of Mulhouse [68]
| Issuer | Ville de Mulhouse (Municipal Commission) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | The centre of the note carries two vignettes reproducing both faces of the French 1 Franc coin: at left, the Semeuse (sower) type with the legend REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE, and at right, the reverse of the coin bearing LIBERTE EGALITE FRATERNITE, the denomination 1 FRANC, and the date 1915. Between the two coin vignettes, a pale red underprint of the Mulhouse municipal coat of arms is visible. The entire field is enclosed by a decorative blue border of interlaced geometric and floral guilloche patterns, with circular denomination cartouches reading 1 F. at each lateral margin, and the issuer inscription VILLE DE MULHOUSE and denomination UN FRANC printed above in bold letterpress. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | VILLE DE MULHOUSE UN FRANC 1 F. | 1 F. SERIE A Nº 28,710 | REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE | LIBERTE · EGALITE · FRATERNITE · 1915 · 1 FRANC |
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Mulhouse spent most of WWI under German administration — the town had been part of the German Reich since 1871. French forces briefly occupied it in August 1914 before being pushed back, and it was not permanently retaken until November 1918. This note was issued in that final year of the war, almost certainly after the November armistice brought the town back under French control, which is precisely why it reads as a French municipal emission rather than a German one.
The JP#132.02 reference places it within the Jérôme Prieur corpus of French emergency chamber of commerce and municipal issues — a category that exploded across northeastern France and Alsace-Lorraine as coin disappeared from circulation. The watermarked paper was a modest but deliberate anti-counterfeiting measure at a time when municipal printing budgets were thin.