1,5 Euro - Cassis

Cassis issued this piece in 1997 as a local emergency currency — a *bon de nécessité* — a French tradition stretching back to wartime shortages that persisted in small municipalities well into the late twentieth century as a mechanism for funding civic events and keeping tourist spending local. These aluminum-bronze pieces circulated within the commune's boundaries, accepted by participating merchants as a means of encouraging economic activity tied to the town itself rather than bleeding out through national retail channels.