2 francs - Trésorerie aux Armées type 1919

The Trésorerie aux Armées notes were military field treasury instruments, issued specifically to French troops on active service rather than to the civilian economy. The 1919 designation in the series name is somewhat misleading — production began in 1917, and the notes circulated through the final years of the war and into the immediate postwar demobilization period. Their use was deliberately restricted to military zones; they could not legally be spent in ordinary French commerce, which was intended to prevent currency from draining out of the war economy.

Ludovic Vallée, a prolific designer at the Imprimerie nationale, worked across multiple wartime emissions. The restricted circulation status means surviving examples with genuine field use wear are actually scarce — many were collected as souvenirs by returning soldiers rather than redeemed.