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100 francs - Bon de Solidarité
| Issuer | Secours National / Croix-Rouge Française |
|---|---|
| Year | 1940-1944 |
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| In circulation to | Yes |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette shows two swallows in flight carrying a parcel toward a barred window, symbolising aid to prisoners of war. An oval portrait of Maréchal Pétain is inset at left. The bicolour border underprint repeats Vichy francisque axes and stars in blue and red. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BON DE SOLIDARITÉ CENT FRANCS AU PROFIT DES POPULATIONS CIVILES ÉPROUVÉES PAR LA GUERRE ET DES PRISONNIERS |
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| Comments |
The Bons de Solidarité were not banknotes in any monetary sense — they were essentially a compulsory charitable fiction. The Vichy government backed the Secours National as its primary welfare vehicle, and from 1940 onward these bonds were sold at face value to French citizens, with social and sometimes professional pressure making refusal difficult. The Croix-Rouge Française co-issued the series, lending it a veneer of humanitarian neutrality that obscured the degree to which the Secours National operated as a Vichy propaganda instrument.
They were never legal tender and could not be spent. The holder exchanged them for nothing — the point was the transfer of funds upward, not any redemption. Surviving examples are relatively common precisely because there was no mechanism to return them.