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2 Francs - Chambre de Commerce d'Amiens [80]
| Issuer | Chambre de Commerce d'Amiens |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | VILLE D'AMIENS BANQUE DUVETTE DEUX FRANCS 15 Septembre 1914 Le Maire L'Emetteur Les Délégués de la Chambre de Commerce IMP. DU PROGRÈS |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in red-orange on plain paper, composed of a dense all-over guilloche underprint of stylised foliage and geometric latticework filling the entire field. The numeral 2 appears in each of the four corners within plain squared cartouches, and a large central numeral 2 is set within a lozenge-shaped guilloche rosette, all enclosed by a repeating ornamental frame border. |
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| Comments |
When the German advance into northern France in August 1914 caused a near-total collapse of everyday commerce, local chambers of commerce across the region began issuing their own emergency notes to replace coinage that had vanished from circulation almost overnight. Amiens was among the earliest to act. These fractional notes — 2 francs being the workhorse denomination — were printed by a local press with no particular security infrastructure, which is why the watermark is the only meaningful anti-counterfeiting measure present.
The Imprimerie du Progrès de la Somme operated continuously until its destruction in 1944, making surviving paper from this period a minor footnote in the press's own history.