2 Francs - Chambre de Commerce du Havre 76

Le Havre's Chamber of Commerce began issuing its own emergency paper money — known as monnaie de nécessité — during the First World War, when the hoarding of coin became acute across France. This 2 Franc piece dates to 1920, when many French chambers were still circulating their wartime issues well into the postwar period, the national coinage system having failed to recover quickly enough to retire them.

Berger-Levrault, the Nancy printer, handled a significant volume of French provincial emergency currency during this period. The watermark is the principal security feature — modest by any measure, but consistent with the cost constraints chambers faced when issuing what was, legally speaking, purely local scrip.