2 francs - Chambre de Commerce de Libourne [33]

Libourne's Chamber of Commerce began issuing emergency fractional notes in 1915 because the wartime hoarding of metal coinage had made small change functionally impossible to obtain. This was a nationwide problem — over 1,400 French chambers of commerce and municipal bodies eventually issued their own paper substitutes under authorization from the French government, which suspended the legal prohibition on such issues in 1914.

Wetterwald Frères were the dominant printer for Gironde-region emergency notes, supplying chambers across Bordeaux and its surrounding towns. The watermark is the primary anti-counterfeiting measure on a note that was, practically speaking, local currency for everyday market transactions.