2 Francs

Le Havre's Chamber of Commerce began issuing emergency small-denomination notes in 1914 when the war's disruption of coin supply created an acute shortage of everyday change across northern French ports. The Ville du Havre joined as co-issuer by 1916, a dual-authority arrangement that was administratively unusual — most French *billets de nécessité* of this period bore only a single commercial or municipal stamp.

Oberthur in Rennes was the dominant French printer for this class of wartime necessity currency, handling dozens of regional issues simultaneously. The watermark security was a meaningful precaution: low-denomination local notes were frequent targets for crude counterfeiting during the conflict.