10 Centimes

Châlons-sur-Marne's commercial union issued this token during the acute small-change shortage that gripped France in the years immediately following World War I. Federal and municipal authorities had largely failed to fill the gap, leaving local chambers of commerce and trade associations across the country to produce their own aluminium and cardboard substitutes — hundreds of distinct issuers operating simultaneously by 1920. The Union Commerciale et Industrielle was among the more organized of these, issuing a coordinated series accepted among member businesses rather than by any single shop.