50 Centimes

The Chambres de Commerce emergency notes issued across Algeria in the early 1920s exist because the postwar coin shortage never really resolved itself — small change simply did not return to circulation fast enough, and local commercial bodies stepped in to fill the gap. Constantine's chamber was among the more active issuers, producing a series of small-denomination notes that functioned purely as local fractional currency, not accepted beyond the region.

Imprimerie Costantini operated out of Philippeville, a port city about 80 kilometers northeast of Constantine. A regional job printer handling a regional monetary stopgap — the whole arrangement was deliberately provisional, and most examples that survived did so in collectors' hands rather than worn out in commerce.