50 Centimes - Chambre de Commerce de Cahors 46

French Chambers of Commerce were authorized to issue emergency small-denomination notes beginning in 1914, when wartime metal shortages made coin production effectively impossible and drove bronze and copper pieces entirely out of circulation. Cahors, the departmental capital of the Lot, issued through its Chamber of Commerce like dozens of other provincial cities — but the volume and variety of Lot-region issues make them disproportionately well-represented in French notgeld collections.

Printed by Pierre Dumont in Limoges, a firm responsible for numerous regional emergency issues during the period. The watermark security feature was applied at the paper stage, not by the printer.