2 Francs - Chambre de Commerce d'Amiens [80]

When the German advance in late 1914 disrupted normal banking across northern France, chambers of commerce across the occupied and near-front zones began issuing their own emergency paper — bons de nécessité — to keep local commerce moving. Amiens sat close enough to the front that the Somme would become synonymous with catastrophe within a year of this note's issue. The Chambre de Commerce d'Amiens turned to a local printer, the Imprimerie du Progrès de la Somme, which had operated since 1869 and was one of the more capable regional presses available.

The watermark is worth noting — relatively unusual for emergency municipal paper of this type, where most issuers dispensed with security features entirely in favor of speed.