1 Euro - Brignais

Brignais is a small commune in the Rhône department south of Lyon, and this piece belongs to the wave of French municipal "euro" tokens struck in anticipation of the 1999 single currency transition. Hundreds of French towns issued these between roughly 1996 and 2001, ostensibly as local promotional currency usable in participating shops, though in practice most were bought by collectors and never spent.

The aluminium-nickel bronze composition was nearly universal across the series — chosen for cost and durability by the handful of private minting firms, notably Monnaie de Paris and smaller houses, that produced the bulk of these issues on contract.