Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 Francs - Decrombecque
| Issuer | Decrombecque, Lens (Pas-de-Calais) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1870 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Rectangular |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Lithographed note with a pale yellow underprint repeating the denomination "CINQ FRANCS" and the numeral "5" across the central field. An elaborate scrollwork and acanthus-leaf border frames the design, with cherub figures at the lower left and right corners and a small medallic portrait vignette at the bottom centre. A ribbon cartouche at the top carries the motto "AGRICULTURE - INDUSTRIE", below which the issuer name "DECROMBECQUE / Lens, (Pas-de-Calais)" appears in bold letterpress, followed by the denomination "Cinq francs" in large script and the date "15 Octobre 1870". Series letters and denomination notation appear in the left margin stub alongside a manuscript signature. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Reverse is unprinted plain white paper; the obverse design is faintly visible as a show-through impression. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the collapse of normal commercial infrastructure pushed hundreds of French merchants, manufacturers, and local businesses to issue their own emergency paper obligations. Decrombecque of Lens was one such issuer — a private commercial entity whose notes circulated on nothing more than local trust and the issuer's personal credit. The Pas-de-Calais mining region sustained enough commercial density to make such instruments viable, at least temporarily.
Boldoduc frères in Lille handled a significant volume of this type of emergency printing across northern France during the conflict. The Jérémie reference places this squarely in the documented bons de nécessité corpus, though survivorship is genuinely thin for notes of this provenance.