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Oorlogsbon - Bon de guerre
| Issuer | Stad Meenen / Ville de Menin |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Pattern or trial banknote |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Onder waarborg van Staat en Stad West-Vlaanderen Stad MEENEN Oorlogsbon van 100 Frank 100 Terug te betalen na den oorlog. Deze bon zal op zicht terugbetaalbaar zijn op de stadskas van Meenen. |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Sous garantie de l'état et de la Ville Flandre Occidental Ville de MENIN Bon de guerre de 100 Francs 100 A rembourser par l'état après la guerre Ce bon sera payable a vue a la caisse communale de Menin. |
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| Comments |
Menin — Meenen in Dutch — sits directly on the Franco-Belgian border along the Lys river, and by late 1914 it was under German occupation. Like dozens of Belgian communes cut off from the national banking system, the town issued its own emergency paper to keep local commerce functioning. These "oorlogsbonnen" or war bonds were a purely local solution to a currency vacuum, authorized at the municipal level with no backing from any central authority.
The engravers Vandevoorde and Pardoen were local craftsmen, not commercial printers — an unusual arrangement that gives the note a distinctly hand-finished quality compared to the more polished emergency issues from larger Belgian cities.