100 Francs - Oostende

Ostend sits in West Flanders, not East Flanders — a cataloging error worth flagging. The city issued its own emergency paper during the German occupation of Belgium in the First World War, when the banking system had effectively collapsed and small change disappeared almost entirely from circulation. These municipal notes, known as noodgeld or monnaie de nécessité, were a local stopgap, authorized by the communal authorities and backed by nothing more than municipal good faith.

Ostend was under German control from October 1914 and served as a major U-boat base throughout the war, which shaped everything about civilian life there — including how money moved.