France's fall to Germany in June 1940 severed reliable metal supply chains to the colonies almost immediately. This zinc pattern was struck as Indochina's monetary administration scrambled to find a workable substitute for the bronze that could no longer be guaranteed — the same supply crisis that would eventually push circulating coinage toward aluminum and then, under Japanese occupation, toward nothing at all.
France's fall to Germany in June 1940 severed reliable metal supply chains to the colonies almost immediately. This zinc pattern was struck as Indochina's monetary administration scrambled to find a workable substitute for the bronze that could no longer be guaranteed — the same supply crisis that would eventually push circulating coinage toward aluminum and then, under Japanese occupation, toward nothing at all.