Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Centimes - Chambre de Commerce de Béthune 62
| Issuer | Chambre de Commerce de Béthune |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Rectangular |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Ce Bon devra être présenté au remboursement dans un délai de cinq ans à dater de la signature de la paix. À toute époque, les Bons peuvent être présentés à l'échange contre des billets de la Banque de France, par quantité minimum de Cinquante francs ou en complétant à concurrence de cette somme par des billets de Banque ou du numéraire. |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Watermark present in the paper; specific motif not confirmed from catalog sources. |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Béthune sits in the Pas-de-Calais, barely fifteen kilometers from the front lines as they stabilized in late 1914. The Chambre de Commerce issued these small-denomination notes in 1915 because the French wartime coin shortage had made transactional commerce nearly impossible — silver and copper were being hoarded or melted, and the Banque de France had no mechanism to supply emergency fractional currency to local bodies quickly enough. Chambers of commerce across northern France filled that gap by issuing their own necessity money, a practice the government formally authorized in August 1914.
The JP#26 reference covers five distinct varieties within this emission, differentiated by serial number blocks and minor typographic revisions — not always easy to distinguish without direct comparison.