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5 Centimes
| Issuer | Commune of Boufarik (Department of Alger) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Centimes (0.05) |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain pink cardboard bearing, to the left, a large circular black ink stamp of the Mairie de Boufarik. The stamp encloses a vignette of a bird of prey — likely a rooster or eagle — rendered in a heraldic style, surrounded by the circular legend 'MAIRIE DE BOUFARIK — ALGÉRIE'. The remainder of the reverse is blank. |
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| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Official stamp |
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| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Boufarik's 1915 emergency cardboard notes were a purely local response to the acute small-change shortage that swept French Algeria — and much of metropolitan France — in the opening year of the war. The Banque de France's inability to keep fractional coinage in circulation forced hundreds of municipalities and commercial bodies to print their own substitutes. Boufarik, a small colonial agricultural town in the Mitidja plain, turned to a local press rather than any established security printer.
The official stamp was the only authentication barrier between a legitimate note and a forgery — a thin line for a 5-centime piece of pink cardboard.