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5 Centimes - Chambre de Commerce de Constantine
| Issuer | Chambre de Commerce de Constantine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Blue-green note printed in dark ink with a decorative guilloche border and ornamental rosettes at each corner. At centre, the municipal arms of Constantine appear flanked by two oval cartouches: the left inscribed with the deliberation date of 12 October 1915, the right noting exchangeability against Banque de l'Algérie notes. The issuer's title runs along the top on a ribbon banner, with spaces for the handwritten signatures of the President and Treasurer below, and the engraver's name 'A. Cayeux' in the lower right margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain blue-green note printed in dark ink with the same guilloche border and corner rosettes as the obverse. The issuer's name appears on a ribbon banner at top, beneath which the large-format denomination '0fr 05' is set in bold letterpress type, above the words 'BON POUR' in a prominent display script. The design is intentionally uncluttered to allow rapid denomination recognition. |
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| Comments |
Emergency small-change notes issued by French Algerian chambers of commerce during the First World War filled a gap that the metropolitan banking system had no interest in solving. With bronze coins hoarded almost immediately after mobilization began in 1914, Algerian merchants faced a practical crisis at the retail level. The Constantine chamber's solution was a series of low-denomination papier-monnaie locally authorized under wartime emergency provisions.
Cayeux engraved the plate; the watermark security was a pragmatic concession to forgery risk on notes this small and this widely handled.