Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
10 Centimes
| Issuer | Union des Commerçants d'Orleansville |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916-1918 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 10 Centimes (0.10) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Printed in black on orange cardboard, the obverse is enclosed within a rectangular decorative border with ornamental corner pieces and column motifs. The inscription UNION DES COMMERÇANTS arcs along the upper portion, while the large denomination numeral 0f.10 occupies the centre field. The issuer name D'ORLEANSVILLE is set in bold capitals along the lower margin, with a small engraver's mark visible in the lower right corner. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | UNION DES COMMERÇANTS Orléansville (Translation: Merchants Union — Orléansville) |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Orleansville — now Chlef — was a mid-sized Algerian colonial town, and like dozens of similar municipalities during the First World War, its local merchants' union issued small-denomination emergency scrip to plug the acute shortage of fractional coinage. The French government had suspended the melting and minting of small coins under wartime metal restrictions, and by 1915–1916 the gap in everyday commerce was severe enough that chambres de commerce and commerçants' unions across Algeria and metropolitan France were printing their own substitutes.
The Union des Commerçants issues from Orleansville are among the more obscure provincial Algerian pieces from this period. Orange-tinted card stock was a common shorthand for the 10-centime denomination across multiple issuing bodies, helping illiterate users sort values by color.