50 Centimes - Chambre de Commerce de Belfort 90

Belfort's Chamber of Commerce began issuing these small-denomination notes in 1915 as French wartime necessity drained metal coinage from circulation almost entirely. Belfort itself had particular significance — the town's famous 1870–71 siege and its unusual administrative status as a territory separate from the rest of Alsace gave local institutions a long tradition of acting with some independence. The Chamber stepped into the void left by the Banque de France, which couldn't supply enough fractional currency to keep daily commerce moving.

The eight catalogue variants under JP#23 reflect successive printings across the war years, with minor typographic and watermark differences distinguishing them — a detail that trips up collectors who assume the series is uniform.