Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
2 Francs
| Issuer | Stad Brugge (City of Bruges) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | 15 January 1915 |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Blue-grey and brown bicolour note with the city name STAD BRUGGE and date 1914 across the top, flanked by an ornate guilloche border. To the left, a vignette of the Bruges civic bear with the heraldic lion of Flanders below; to the right, the circular city seal legend RVM : BRVGENSIVM runs along the margin. The central panel carries a brown underprint vignette of a Bruges canal scene with medieval architecture, over which the denomination 2 GOED VOOR TWEE FRANK 2 and the redemption clause BETAALBAAR TER STADSKAS DEN 15 JANUARI 1915 are letterpress-printed, with two manuscript signatures above a serial number at the foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Entirely decorative back printed in blue-grey and brown, composed of a dense interlaced Art Nouveau guilloche pattern. Eight large ornamental SB (Stad Brugge) monograms, intertwined with caduceus-like staffs, fill the four corners and the top and bottom registers. A plain rectangular panel at centre bears the lightly printed text STAD BRUGGE and the date 1914 as an underprint, left otherwise blank. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Bruges issued its own emergency paper money in August 1914, within weeks of the German occupation of Belgium. Municipal authorities across the country scrambled to fill the vacuum left by hoarded and requisitioned coin — the Stad Brugge notes were part of that first chaotic wave of local scrip, produced locally and never intended to circulate beyond the city itself.
Locally printed emergency issues from this period are disproportionately rare in high grade. The paper stock used by municipal printers in 1914 was not banking-quality, and heavy short-term circulation took its toll quickly.