5 Centimes Duffel

One of thousands of Belgian municipal emergency notes issued under German occupation, this piece reflects a practical crisis: the occupying authorities had systematically drained coinage from circulation, leaving small-denomination transactions impossible for ordinary commerce. Communes across Belgium were authorized — or simply compelled by circumstance — to print their own fractional paper to keep local markets functioning.

Duffel, a small municipality in the Antwerp province, was no monetary authority, and the signatures of the burgemeester and a municipal secretary carried the note's only guarantee. Redemption depended entirely on the commune surviving the occupation solvent enough to honor its paper.