2 Franc

Rumillies is a small village in the province of Hainaut, and in late 1914 it was squarely in the path of the German advance into Belgium. This note is a bons de nécessité — emergency scrip issued at the commune level when the Belgian franc effectively ceased to function as a reliable medium of local exchange during the occupation. Hundreds of Belgian communes did the same, and the lithographic workshops of Tournai, including Cart, turned out many of them before conditions made even that difficult.

The official stamp is the only authentication — no serial numbers, no sophisticated anti-counterfeiting. A rubber stamp and the authority of the local administration were considered sufficient.