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| Issuer | Établissements A. Olier, Clermont-Ferrand |
|---|---|
| Year | 1940-1945 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Paper (red) |
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| 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 |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Letterpress-printed in black on red paper, the reverse carries bilingual camp-currency regulations set in two parallel text blocks stacked vertically and divided by a short ruled line: the upper block in French and the lower in German, each restricting the note's use exclusively to Axis prisoners of war within Commando No. 142. The layout is purely typographic, with no decorative elements. |
| Reverse lettering | Cette monnaie de camp provisoire doit être seulement utilisée par les prisonniers de guerre de l'Axe. — Elle n'est valable qu'à l'intérieur du Commando N° 142. ------------------------------ Dieses provisorische lagergeld ist nur für kriegsgefangene der Achsenmächte verwendbar. — Es ist nur innerhalb des Kommandos Nr 142 gültig. |
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| Comments |
Wartime necessity drove hundreds of French commercial firms, municipalities, and chambers of commerce to issue their own emergency fractional currency between 1940 and 1944. The Établissements A. Olier notes from Clermont-Ferrand belong to this chaotic episode — small-denomination bons de nécessité printed by local businesses to address the chronic coin shortage that followed the German occupation and the disruption of Banque de France supply lines to the unoccupied zone. Clermont-Ferrand, sitting in Vichy France, was cut off from normal monetary channels in ways that northern cities were not.
The red paper stock was a deliberate anti-counterfeiting measure, common among smaller issuers who lacked access to security printing.