10 Centimes

Mascara's municipal emergency notes were a product of the wartime coin shortage that swept French Algeria from 1915 onward — metal was needed for the front, and small change effectively vanished from circulation. The Ville de Mascara, like dozens of Algerian communes, responded by commissioning its own local scrip rather than waiting for Paris to solve the problem. Imprimerie Muselli printed these locally, which shows in the modest typography.

These small-denomination municipal issues circulated almost entirely within the issuing town and were theoretically redeemable at the municipal cashier. In practice, redemption was irregular, and many were simply worn out of existence.