1 Franc - Pipaix

Pipaix is a village of a few hundred people near Leuze-en-Hainaut, and in 1940 — with German forces occupying Belgium and the national currency system in near-collapse — local communes across the country began issuing their own emergency scrip. These small municipal notes filled the void left by hoarded coins and disrupted banking. The Commune of Pipaix's 1 Franc piece belongs to that fragile, hyperlocal tradition of occupation-era necessity money, produced cheaply and intended for purely parochial use among neighbors who simply needed change.