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50 Centimes Without Arabic text

Issuer Chambre de Commerce de Philippeville
Year 1914
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Value 50 Centimes (0.50)
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Obverse description Printed in red with a yellow-blue underprint; the note carries black serial numbers. Two seated allegorical female figures appear at the left and right flanking the central text, within a decorative border. Signature lines for the President and the Secretary-Treasurer are printed below the denomination.
Obverse lettering CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE
DE PHILIPPEVILLE
Cinquante
Centimes
Le Président
Le Secrétaire Trésorier
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Comments

Philippeville — now Skikda, Algeria — was an Algerian port city under French administration when this note was produced. The Chambre de Commerce issues of 1914 were emergency small-change substitutes, filling a gap created by the hoarding and disappearance of coin at the outbreak of war. Moullot fils aîné was a well-established Marseille commercial printer, not a specialist security printer, which shows in these notes — they were functional documents, not hardened against forgery.

The absence of Arabic text distinguishes this from related issues in the same series that carried bilingual text as a concession to the local population. That omission was a deliberate editorial choice, not an oversight.