50 Centimes - Chambre de Commerce d'Elbeuf 76

Elbeuf, a textile town on the Seine southeast of Rouen, was one of dozens of French provincial chambers of commerce that issued emergency small-denomination notes during the First World War when coin shortages became acute. The central government's copper and nickel were absorbed by the war effort, and local commerce ground against a near-total absence of change. These chambre de commerce issues filled that gap from roughly 1914 onward, with individual towns responsible for their own designs, paper procurement, and redemption guarantees.

JP#55-04 is catalogued among the Elbeuf series but detailed print run data for this specific type remains sparse. The watermark security was typical of the more carefully produced provincial issues — some chambers cut corners badly, others did not.