50 centimes - Chambre de Commerce de Calais [62] 7è émission

French chambers of commerce issued their own emergency notes during and after the First World War to compensate for the chronic shortage of small-denomination coinage — a problem that had plagued circulation since 1914. Calais was particularly affected, given its role as a major Allied logistics hub throughout the conflict. By the seventh emission in 1919, the Chambre de Commerce de Calais had been managing its own parallel small-change economy for several years, with Roy & Valade in Amiens handling the print runs for much of the series.

The watermark is the only security measure — modest by any standard, but consistent with wartime and postwar austerity in production costs across the chambre de commerce issues generally.