Regional Artistry In War-Torn France During the First World War, France had more important things to do than design and issue banknotes. Inflation had set in, coinage was scarce, and all attention was on the war. While the large percentage of emergency banknotes issued reflect the need to get something out fast and cheap, there are some gems to be found. These notes were designed by lesser known artists and printed hurriedly by local printers, but we can see pride in the regional motifs and truly artistic work in these small notes. Read the article.... Dave
Thanks for the post Dave. These seem like the emergency currency used in Germany and Austria during the twentieth century as well, called Notgeld. These were usedin local areas and/or local merchants, banks, etc. Every one I have come across has amazing detail in their designs. The French ones in the article you posted are just as beautiful.
Thanks for reading it! Yes, exactly the same, Notgeld is just the German word for this type of emergency money. Dave
Tres bien, monsieur M! A great write up on French notgeld! I've been surprised that there isn't more of it seen in the market - probably due to the glut of German and Austrian notes of the era.
Merci, monsieur L! Interesting you mention that, here's a quote from Wikipedia's "notgeld" article. It does look like the German notes were collected early on, whereas I haven't seen any similar comments about the French ones. As these banknotes were very colorful, they soon became a target for collectors. As the issuing bodies realized this demand, they continued to issue these notes beyond their economic necessity up till 1922. Quite often the validity period of the note had already expired when the notgeld was issued. The sets that were issued in 1920 and predominantly in 1921 were usually extremely colourful and depicted many things, such as local buildings, local scenes and local folklore/tales. These sets (that were not actually issued to go into circulation) were known as "Serienscheine" (serial paper money).
I have a couple of pieces of "paper coins" from Lille that are dated 1915 that I bought in Munich a few years ago.
Dave M: Excellent work, yet again! I love your presentations clean graphic layouts, with illustrations properly labeled and notations footnoted, always accompanied by your terrific, succinct writing.
DaveM: Very nice article and thank you for taking the time to post this. One of the things I find unusual about the notes is that the SNs are separated by comma's. It is quite the European influence with their numbering system as we in North America use the decimal, they use a comma. I have not really paid attenton to it as far as SNs before, however, it stood out to me like a big ole sore thumb. Quite a nice display as well. RickieB
Dave, I'll have to look into the French equivalent from now on. I'd like to have the emergency currency from Western Europe in a group within my collection and now know about this variation.
Seriously now, your site is AWESOME - love the UV, the Watermark, and the microprinting views. BTW I saw a rather beaten up Uruguayan 5 Pesos from 1930 on the fleaMarket recently - sure wish I could find an EF or better of that note.
Thanks for reading it, everyone. Always a joy to have something to write about, and I'm pleased folks take the time to read it! Thanks SM, I appreciate it. I saw that note too (didn't meet the minimum, right?), but a bit mangled and pricey for me... Dave
Dave: Great read and a great site. I also took the time to read some of your other material. If you are an IBNS member, consider having some of it published in the IBNS Journal. I have an extensive collection of French locals from WWI. It is an interesting area and most pieces can be found for a few dollars. The difference between French locals and German notgeld depend on which type of German notgeld is being discussed. Most of the German (and Austrian) notgeld in the market are the Serienscheine notes from the 1920s. As noted in the Wikipedia article quoted above, Serienscheine were not usually intended for circulation but as souvenirs. The WWI era French locals are better compared to German Verkehrausgaben which were small change notes issued from 1914-1920 usually by German municipalities. These were intended to circulate due to the lack of small change due to wartime conditions. The Verkehrausgaben are not as colorful and attractive as their Serienscheine cousins. They are not as common as the Serienscheine but are comparably priced at a dollar or so.
I've got to agree with lettow on that last post. You can really see the difference between the Verkehrausgabenand Serienscheine when you have them beside each other, even if you don't see the dates. I enjoy both of them though.
Thanks much! There is already one article in the queue for the IBNS Journal, I hope to see it published soon. Interesting info, I'd always thought of "Notgeld" as one class of emergency notes until this discussion came up. Do you happen to have and example of each flavor you could link here, that would show the different styles of the two types? Dave
Really impressive presentation on a topic I was completely unaware of. I wonder if there were other "notgeld equivalents" in other European nations that experienced hyperinflation in the early 1920s. Netherlands? Belgium?
Not the hyperinflation period but local notes were issued in many countries that experienced shortages of small change during and immediately after WWI. In addition to France and Germany, I have in my collection or have seen notes from Belgium, Monaco, Luxemburg, Poland, Denmark, Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia. If you look in the Pick catalog under Liechtenstein you will see a grand total of three notes. These were issued as emergency money after WWI. Small change emergency notes were also issued in Spain during the Civil War of 1936-39. There is a scarce issue from Andorra from the SPanish Civil War also. Local small change notes were issued in Shanghai during WWII. In Mexico and Italy during WWII circulating cashiers and bank checks were impressed into service for small change. In the mid-1970s, small bearer checks were issued in Italy.
Factoid - During WWI Liechenstein's army sent 12 troops to fight with the Central powers. After the War Liechenstein disbanded its army for good. The last soldier of the Liechenstein army died about 15 years ago.
