50 Centimes - Chambre de Commerce d'Aurillac [15]

French chambers of commerce were authorized to issue emergency small-denomination notes during the First World War to address a severe shortage of bronze and nickel coinage, most of which had been hoarded or melted down. The Aurillac chamber, serving the Cantal department in the Auvergne, commissioned local printer Delostal & Germa rather than one of the major Parisian houses — a choice that kept production entirely within the department. Designer Félix Tourdes was also a local figure, responsible for much of the chamber's printed material during this period.

The authorization extended well past the Armistice, with the series remaining valid through 1923 as coin shortages persisted into the early postwar years.