2 Francs Commune de Blandain

Blandain is a small village just west of Tournai, and this note is a product of the acute coin shortage that paralyzed Belgian municipalities within weeks of the German occupation in August 1914. With the national banking system disrupted and small change hoarded or simply gone, hundreds of communes issued their own emergency paper — legally dubious, practically necessary.

The Lithographie & Cartonnage de Tournai was a local commercial printer, not a security press. The official stamp was the only authentication standing between this note and outright forgery.