50 Centimes - Chambre de Commerce de Rochefort-sur-Mer 17

French chambers of commerce were authorized to issue emergency small-denomination notes beginning in 1914, when the hoarding of coins created acute shortages in everyday transactions. Rochefort-sur-Mer, as a major Atlantic naval base and arsenal town, had particular need for small-change substitutes given the wartime surge in dockyard activity. By 1920, that authorization had outlasted the war itself — these late issues were simply filling a gap that the Banque de France had still not managed to close in lower denominations.

Keller Frères in Angoulême handled a substantial share of provincial emergency note printing across the Charente region during this period.