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50 Centimes - Town of Mulhouse [68]
| Issuer | Ville de Mulhouse (Municipal Commission) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | The note is framed by a border combining vegetal scrollwork and geometric guilloche ornaments. At centre, a crowned municipal shield of the City of Mulhouse is held by two rampant lions, the entire armorial composition set within a circular medallion flanked on each side by an olive branch. Denomination numerals appear in each corner, with series and serial number inscriptions running along the upper and lower registers. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in blue on an underprint of repeated text reading VILLE DE MULHOUSE. An ornate vegetal and geometric border frames the design, with denomination value "50 C." in each corner. The central field is occupied by a large cartouche with scroll ornaments bearing the legal text of the bond, with signature lines for Le Receveur municipal and Commission municipale / Président appearing below. |
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| Comments |
Mulhouse — ceded to the German Empire in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War and recovered by France only in November 1918 — issued these municipal notes during the final year of occupation and transition. The town had been "Mülhausen im Elsass" for nearly five decades, and the reversion to French civic administration created an immediate practical problem: a severe shortage of small-denomination coinage that national banking networks were in no position to solve quickly.
The watermarked paper was a modest security measure, typical of the French municipal emergency issues coordinated under the JP (Jerger-Pirot) cataloguing framework. Most Mulhouse bons survived in relatively unhandled condition simply because the currency chaos resolved faster than expected.