Catalog
10 Centimes
| Issuer | Nouveau Comptoir d'Escompte de Batna (Union des Commerçants de la Ville de Batna) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | Plain light-blue paper ticket with black letterpress text overprinted in red. The red overprint takes the form of a rectangular cartouche with rounded corners enclosing the issuer's name "NOUVEAU COMPTOIR D'ESCOMPTE DE BATNA" at top and bottom, a large serial number at centre, and the word "ESCOMPTE" at foot. Black italic text reading "Union des Commerçants" and "Ticket de 0,10" is printed across the face, with the letter "Z" appearing at either side as a control mark. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | Ticket de 0,10 remboursable en billets de la Banque de l'Algérie au Nouveau Comptoir d'Escompte de Batna (Translation: Ticket worth 0.10, redeemable in Bank of Algeria banknotes at the New Discount Office in Batna.) |
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| Comments |
The Nouveau Comptoir d'Escompte de Batna was one of dozens of local commercial associations across French Algeria that improvised small-denomination emergency scrip during the acute coin shortage of 1914–1915. When the war drained metallic currency from circulation almost overnight, merchants' unions in provincial towns like Batna stepped in because the official banking network couldn't respond quickly enough at the local level. These issues were strictly informal — tolerated rather than authorized — and typically redeemable only at the issuing merchants.
Batna's scrip series is among the less-documented Algerian emergency issues of the period, and surviving examples are genuinely uncommon.