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10 Centimes
| Issuer | Ville de Bône (Commune of Bône, Department of Constantine) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916-1918 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Franc (1848-1959) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Yellow guilloche underprint fills a rectangular frame with decorative corner flourishes, against which the bold black letterpress denomination '10 CENT.' is printed in the upper portion. Below, the issuer inscription 'VILLE de BONE' appears in a smaller typeface, followed by the serial number prefixed by 'No.' The printer's imprint 'BONE. – IMP. CENTRALE MARIANI.' runs along the bottom margin outside the frame, accompanied by a secondary control number. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain yellow underprint within a rectangular border, largely unprinted. Faint show-through of the obverse lettering is visible, and traces of a purple validation stamp or handwritten annotations appear across the face, indicating administrative endorsement for circulation. |
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| Comments |
Bône's municipal emergency notes of 1916–1918 belong to a broader phenomenon across French Algeria during the First World War: the near-total disappearance of small coin from circulation as metal was redirected toward the war effort, leaving communes scrambling to produce their own low-denomination substitutes. Bône — a port city on the northeastern Algerian coast, export hub for iron ore from Ouenza — had the local printing infrastructure to act quickly. Mariani's press was a working commercial printer, not a security facility, and the notes reflect that.
These were purely functional stopgaps, redeemable by the municipality and intended to vanish once coinage returned. Few survived deliberate redemption.