10 Francs

The Banque Rouennaise was one of several provincial French commercial banks that issued emergency small-denomination notes during the Franco-Prussian War and its immediate aftermath, when coin hoarding had effectively stripped the market of circulating specie. This 10 Francs note dates to the period when Rouen, as the principal city of Normandy, was managing the economic disruption of the German occupation and the subsequent Commune crisis — both of which accelerated local paper emissions far beyond peacetime norms.

Printed locally by N. Carteron, the note was never intended for long-term circulation. Provincial emergency issues of this type were typically redeemed and destroyed once Banque de France supply normalized, which is why surviving examples from minor Norman issuers are genuinely uncommon.