2 Francs - départements du Nord [59], de l'Aisne [02] et de l'Oise [60]

One of the more unusual monetary arrangements to emerge from the German occupation of northern France, this note was issued by a syndicate of municipalities — not a bank, not a national treasury, but a coalition of communes in three occupied départements scrambling to fill the vacuum left when regular currency dried up. The Syndicat des Communes was essentially an administrative improvisation, and its notes circulated in territory that Paris could not reach.

The watermark is notable given the circumstances — securing watermarked paper stock in occupied France in 1916 was not trivial, and it points to some degree of advance planning or outside facilitation before the occupation fully tightened.