50 Centimes

Issued during the First World War's final phase, this note exists because the metal coin it replaced had been consumed by wartime demand for copper and nickel. France's protectorate administration over Tunisia extended to its monetary emergency measures, and small-denomination paper fractional currency was the result — a stopgap that outlasted the armistice into 1919.

Yvorra, Barlier et Clavé printing this locally in Tunis rather than sourcing from a metropolitan French house was unusual for the period, and Weber handling both design and engraving himself kept the entire production chain within the colony. A tight wartime arrangement that shows in the note's relatively modest execution.