50 centimes - Chambre de Commerce de Bayonne 64

French chambres de commerce were authorized to issue emergency small-denomination notes in August 1914, when the mobilization order triggered an immediate hoarding of coin and the Banque de France suspended specie payments. Bayonne's chamber was among the first provincial bodies to act, and these 50-centime pieces filled the void left by vanished bronze and nickel coinage that wouldn't return to everyday use until well after the Armistice.

The JP#21-40 à 44 reference covers five catalogue varieties within this type — differences in signature combinations and series numbering rather than distinct printings. Collectors regularly conflate the rarer signature pairings with the common ones.