50 Centimes Blue

The Chambre de Commerce d'Alger issued these small-denomination emergency notes in 1915 because the outbreak of war had caused an acute shortage of fractional coin — hoarding and metal requisitions for the war effort stripped North African markets of small change almost immediately after mobilization. Local chambers of commerce across French Algeria stepped in where the Banque de l'Algérie would not, producing their own papier-monnaie de nécessité.

Imprimerie Adolphe Jourdan was one of the most prolific printers in colonial North Africa, handling everything from official administrative documents to scholarly publications on Algerian history. The firm closed in 1916, the year after this note was produced.