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1 KiLO Acier ordinaire
| Issuer | O.C.R.P.I. (Office Central de Répartition des Produits Industriels), France |
|---|---|
| Year | 1940-1947 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | 31 March 1947 |
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| Obverse description | Blue letterpress vignette of five male steel workers in classical style around an anvil, with a draped allegorical female figure at left. Circular underprint at upper right bears the denomination '1 Kg'. Two manuscript signatures appear below the central vignette, attributed to 'Le Dir. de la Caisse Centrale d'Emission' and 'Le Répartiteur'. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | O.C.R.P.I. SECTION DES FONTES FERS ET ACIERS VALABLE POUR COMMANDE JUSQU'AU 31 MARS 1947 1Kg BILLET DE 1 KILO DE PRODUITS SIDERURGIQUES EN ACIER ORDINAIRE HM 3,964,698 |
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| Comments |
The O.C.R.P.I. was established by the Vichy regime in 1940 to administer rationing and allocation of industrial materials under German occupation. These notes — technically "bons de matières" or materials vouchers — circulated not as currency but as entitlements, allowing the bearer to claim a fixed weight of ordinary steel from authorized distributors. Acier ordinaire, plain carbon steel, was among the most tightly controlled commodities, essential to both German war production and whatever remained of French industrial output.
The guilloche underprint is anti-counterfeiting work borrowed from banknote printing convention — a reasonable precaution given that fraudulent materials vouchers were in active circulation by 1942.