10 Francs - Ville de Lille

Lille fell under German occupation in October 1914, just weeks after the city had already begun printing emergency municipal notes to compensate for the acute coin shortage that paralyzed retail commerce across northern France in the opening weeks of the war. This note predates the occupation — the Ville de Lille series was authorized and issued while the city was still under French administration, making the circumstances of its survival genuinely uncertain given the upheaval that followed almost immediately.

The dry embossed stamp was the municipality's primary authentication device, a deliberate choice given that sophisticated printing security was neither practical nor available on short notice. L. Danel was a well-established Lille printer, which is why local production was feasible at all.