25 Centimes - Chambres de Commerce du Nord [59] et du Pas-de-Calais [62]

The joint issue by the Chambers of Commerce of Nord and Pas-de-Calais reflects the extraordinary fragmentation of French currency authority during the First World War. With the Banque de France unable to supply sufficient small-denomination notes to occupied and front-adjacent departments, regional chambers were authorized to fill the gap — producing what amounted to local scrip that circulated by necessity rather than legal tender status in the conventional sense.

The departmental numbers 59 and 62 printed on the note were not decorative; they defined the geographic limits of valid use. Acceptance outside those two departments was technically at the recipient's discretion.