25 Centimes

Wartime small-change shortages in French Algeria produced a wave of locally issued emergency notes, and Cherchell's 1916 25 centimes is a product of exactly that pressure. Metal coinage had effectively disappeared from circulation by mid-war, hoarded or melted, forcing municipalities across the départements to fill the gap themselves. Cherchell — ancient Caesarea, a small coastal town west of Algiers — had neither the resources nor the infrastructure of a major city, and the result is appropriately modest.

Jean Glénat's design credit is unusual for a municipal emergency issue of this scale. Most comparable notes from Algerian communes were produced anonymously or through local print shops without named designers.