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| Issuer | Stad Brugge (City of Bruges) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Franc |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 25 CENTIEMEN Stad Brugge VIJF EN TWINTIG Ct. de Sekretaris de Burgemeester |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in red letterpress on a vertically lined beige paper ground. The words "STAD" and "BRUGGE" appear in large bold capitals at upper left and upper right respectively, flanking a central circular municipal seal bearing the Bruges city arms and the surrounding Gothic legend "Stad Brugge Gemeente Bestuur"; "KASBON" is inscribed at lower left and the date "1-6-15" at lower right. Two rectangular guilloche-style underprint blocks flank the central seal at mid-left and mid-right. |
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| Comments |
Bruges issued its own emergency fractional notes in 1915 under German occupation, when small coin had essentially vanished from circulation — hoarded by civilians and absorbed by military requisitioning almost immediately after the invasion. Hundreds of Belgian communes did the same, producing a chaotic patchwork of local scrip that the occupying administration tolerated rather than sanctioned.
The two signatories — C. Debandt and Baron Evan Caloen — represented the city's civil administration, which continued functioning under occupation as a matter of practical necessity. Baron Caloen came from one of the oldest Flemish patrician families, a detail that would have carried quiet weight with a local population navigating the politics of collaboration and survival.