50 Centimes - Chambre de Commerce d'Aubenas [07]

The Aubenas chamber issued this note under the emergency currency provisions that French chambers of commerce had relied on since the First World War — provisions that were repeatedly extended through the early 1920s as the Banque de France struggled to supply small-denomination coinage. Aubenas, a modest market town in the Ardèche, was among the smaller chambers authorized to issue; its notes circulated within a tightly bounded local economy heavily dependent on silk and chestnut trade.

Léo Leyvastre designed for several southern French chambers during this period. B. Arnaud of Villeurbanne handled the printing — a regional firm that took on significant chamber work throughout the Rhône-Alpes area when Parisian printers were overextended.