50 Centimes

The Côte d'Ivoire emergency fractional notes of 1917 were authorized under a broader French West African decree allowing individual colonial administrations to issue small-denomination paper to address a severe metallic coin shortage — wartime metal requisitions had stripped local circulation of nearly all silver and bronze. Each colony printed its own, which is why Côte d'Ivoire's issue carries its own colonial header rather than the federation-wide AOF branding used for higher denominations.

The Gorée press had been producing official colonial documents since the nineteenth century, but currency was a different matter — these notes were rudimentary by any standard, and counterfeiting was a genuine concern from the moment of issue.