50 Centimes - Groupement de Commerçants - Poissy [78]

Poissy's merchant association issued zinc emergency tokens during the German occupation of France in World War II, when Vichy-era metal requisitioning and disrupted supply chains made small-denomination coinage effectively vanish from daily commerce. Local trade groups across occupied France filled the gap with privately struck nécessité tokens, authorized at the communal level but carrying no official government backing. Zinc was the concession metal of the occupation — copper and nickel had been requisitioned, and zinc was what remained.