fnc_914910 - COMPTOIR D’ESCOMPTE DE L’OUEST Timbre 25 Centimes Paris

POSTAGE STAMPS AS CURRENCY

The coin stamps are coins of necessity which were used to supplement in the failing monetary circulation in coinage. The first coin stamps appeared in the second quarter of the year 1920. The manufacturing patent for coinage stamps (FYP) is dated March 19, 1920. The production seems to have lasted approximately three years. Stamps from 5 cents to 35 cents were used to make coinage stamps. The purple 35 cents is very rare and was little used. We find especially on the coin stamps the values of 5 and 10 centimes. The prints, except those of Crédit Lyonnais, are very low, but cannot be less than 1,000 coins. They were never recognized by the administration and they were put into circulation at the instigation of private firms, an advertising medium at the same time as a substitute coin in order to replace the missing or hoarded divisional coins..