50 Vaillants

The Vaillants were a system of internal scrip issued by the Vichy-era youth labor organization Chantiers de la Jeunesse Française, established in 1940 as a compulsory substitute for military service after the armistice prohibited France from maintaining a full conscript army. Young men between twenty and twenty-two were enrolled and paid partly in these vouchers, redeemable only within the Chantiers' own canteens and shops — a deliberate mechanism to keep purchasing power inside the organization and reduce demands on the general supply chain.

Breysse was a Lyon-based sculptor and medallist, an unusual choice for banknote design work, and his involvement reflects the degree to which Vichy's cultural apparatus sought to give even utilitarian scrip a certain craft credibility.