50 Centimes - Chambre de Commerce de Sens 89

The Chambre de Commerce de Sens was one of dozens of French provincial chambers authorized to issue emergency small-denomination notes following the acute coin shortage that developed during the First World War and persisted well into the early 1920s. The franc's silver and bronze coins had been hoarded or melted almost immediately after 1914, and the national government's response — small-format Bons de la Chambre de Commerce — fell to local printers to produce. Imprimerie Nouvelle François E. in Troyes handled this series, a relatively modest regional shop serving the Yonne and Aube departments.

JP#118-10 and JP#118-11 designate two distinct signature varieties within the same emission.