500 Francs - Cantine voucher Pas-de-Calais

The Houillères du Bassin du Nord et du Pas-de-Calais was created by nationalization decree in December 1944, folding the formerly private and German-occupied northern coalfields into state control almost before the war had formally ended. These canteen vouchers — scrip rather than banknotes in any strict sense — were issued to miners as part of the rationing system still governing food distribution in postwar France, redeemable only at pit-head canteens and company stores.

The 1945–1948 window places this squarely in the period before French rationing fully unwound. Miners were a priority labor class; their scrip had real purchasing power within a closed economy when outside it, francs often bought very little.