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20 Francs Spa
| Issuer | City of Spa (Province of Liège) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1940 |
| Type | Emergency banknote |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed in black ink on cream paper, the note is set within a decorative border of scrollwork volutes. A serial number appears at the upper right and an official municipal cachet is struck in blue ink. Three manuscript signatures of the Secretary, the Receiver, and the Burgomaster are inscribed at the foot of the note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | N° 7492 VILLE DE SPA (ligne) 20 FRANCS (Vingt francs) Payables par la Caisse Communale après la Guerre. Spa, le 15 Mai 1940. Le secrétaire, Le Receveur, Le Bourgmestre, (signature) (signature) (signature) |
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| Comments |
Spa's municipal authority issued emergency fractional currency in 1940 under the occupation's early disruption of normal banking — a practice repeated across dozens of Belgian communes when coin and small-denomination notes vanished from circulation almost overnight. These hyper-local emissions were authorised at the communal level, printed with whatever means were available locally, and typically redeemed within months, which kept survival rates low relative to issue quantities.
The official cachet is the only security measure, which tells you everything about the improvised urgency of the issue.