5 Centimes

Mechelen was under German military occupation when this note was issued, and like dozens of Belgian municipalities in 1917, the city resorted to small-denomination paper to compensate for the near-total disappearance of metal coinage — hoarded by the population or requisitioned by the occupier. These hyper-local emergency issues were produced under considerable constraint, which makes the involvement of named designers and engravers notable; most comparable issues from smaller communes are anonymous print jobs.

Poortman and Minguet were both active in Belgian printing trades during this period. The collaboration suggests a divided plate or a two-stage production process, though the small format kept ambitions modest.