5 Francs - Blue, black denomination type 1871

This issue dates from an extraordinarily compressed moment in French monetary history: the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune, during which the Banque de France had suspended specie payments and flooded circulation with small-denomination notes to compensate for the hoarding and disappearance of coin. The 5 Franc note was not a routine issue — it was a direct response to metallic currency vanishing from everyday commerce under wartime and then insurrectionary conditions.

Chazal was a painter by primary training, and Dujardin one of the more technically accomplished engravers working in Paris at the time. The collaboration was not unusual for Banque de France commissions of the period, which consistently drew on fine-arts talent rather than purely commercial printing houses.

Specie payments resumed in 1878, after which this series was progressively withdrawn.