Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Centimes - Chambres de Commerce du Nord (59) et du Pas-de-Calais (62)
| Issuer | Chambres de Commerce du Nord et du Pas-de-Calais |
|---|---|
| Year | 1925 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 50 Centimes (0.50) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | A poignant post-war vignette at left centre shows a seated woman cradling an infant amid rubble, with a devastated industrial landscape in the background rendered in golden-ochre letterpress. The denomination "0f.50" appears in a bold oval cartouche at upper right, framed by a fine-line border with foliate corner ornaments. Issuing authority text and two manuscript facsimile signatures of the Trésorier and Président appear across the upper centre, with series and serial number printed in a panel along the lower edge. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The denomination "CINQUANTE CENTIMES" is set in large bold capitals across the top of the note. At centre, an oval cartouche contains a regional map of Nord and Pas-de-Calais with principal cities marked by dots and dotted boundary lines, captioned "CHAMBRES DE COMMERCE DE:". To the left, redemption text is printed in a columnar block, while a listing of member chamber cities runs down the right margin. The lower portion carries a symbolic vignette of crossed agricultural and industrial tools — a plough, anchor, gear wheel, and sheaves — evoking the economic character of the issuing region. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Chambres de Commerce du Nord and Pas-de-Calais operated as a joint issuing authority — unusual even by the standards of French emergency coinage legislation, which generally permitted individual chambers to issue independently. Their collaboration reflected the economic interdependence of the two departments, whose textile and mining industries shared labor pools, rail lines, and commercial networks across an administrative border that meant little in practice.
These small-format chamber notes persisted well into the 1920s largely because the wartime destruction of northern France had left coin circulation chronically thin for years after the Armistice.