25 Centimes

Emergency fractional paper issued by a local trade and industry syndicate in Mostaganem, a port city on the Algerian coast, during the acute small-change shortage that gripped much of France and its territories in the First World War. The Banque de l'Algérie was unable to meet demand for low-denomination coins, and chambers of commerce and regional syndicates across Algeria stepped in as quasi-monetary authorities — a parallel process to what was happening simultaneously across metropolitan France with the well-documented bons de nécessité issues.

The Mostaganem syndicate's notes are among the more obscure of the Algerian wartime issues, rarely appearing in European auction rooms.