50 Centimes - Chambres de Commerce du Lot

During and immediately after the First World War, the French central banking system effectively collapsed at the local retail level — the Banque de France simply could not supply enough small-denomination coinage to meet everyday commerce. Chambers of commerce across France were authorized to fill the gap by issuing their own paper fractional currency, the so-called monnaie de nécessité. The Lot department's chamber was one of dozens that took up this responsibility, with Pierre Dumont's Limoges press handling much of the regional output for the southwest.

These small emergency notes were intended as strictly temporary instruments, redeemable once the coinage shortage eased — most were recalled and destroyed by the mid-1920s, which accounts for their relative scarcity today despite having circulated widely in Cahors and surrounding market towns.