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50 Centimes - Douai et Carvin
| Issuer | Communes of the Arrondissement de Douai and Region de Carvin |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is entirely letterpress-composed and presents an exhaustive roster of the participating communes arranged under two geographic headings: Arrondissement de Douai and Région de Carvin, the latter encompassing Lens and the surrounding mining towns of the Pas-de-Calais coalfield. Below the commune lists, the membership of the Commission de Surveillance et de Contrôle is stated, identifying the President of the Douai Chamber of Commerce and the Mayors of the principal member towns. |
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
This note belongs to the sprawling category of French wartime necessity currency — the *monnaie de nécessité* — issued by local administrative bodies after German occupation and the chaos of 1914 disrupted the normal supply of small-denomination coinage across northern France. The grouping of Douai's arrondissement with the Carvin region under a single issuing authority reflects ad hoc administrative consolidation under pressure, not any pre-existing political arrangement.
Dutilleux was a local Douai printer, not a specialized security printer — the watermark being the primary, and essentially only, anti-counterfeiting measure deployed here. Modest, but typical of what a regional commercial press could realistically achieve in wartime conditions.