2 francs - Chambre de Commerce de Marseille [13]

Marseille's Chamber of Commerce resorted to issuing its own emergency paper currency in the late summer of 1914, as the mobilization for the First World War caused an immediate hoarding crisis — gold and silver coins vanished from circulation within weeks of the August declaration of war, and the national banking system could not respond fast enough to fill the gap. Chambers of commerce across France were granted provisional authority to issue these billets de nécessité, a stopgap that would run for years longer than anyone anticipated.

Valère Bernard was a well-regarded Marseillais artist and ceramicist, better known for his decorative arts work than for banknote design. Moullot, the printer, was a long-established Marseille lithography house with deep roots in the city's commercial print trade.