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10 Centimes
| Issuer | Société du Commerce de La Rochelle |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | 0.6 mm |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | Uniface strike; the reverse presents the incuse negative impression of the obverse design, formed naturally by the stamping of the extremely thin iron blank. All legends and numerals appear in intaglio, mirrored relative to the obverse, with no intentional independent design element. |
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| Additional information |
La Rochelle's chamber of commerce issued iron tokens like this one to address the acute small-change shortage that paralyzed French retail commerce during the First World War. The Banque de France had effectively hoarded copper and bronze coinage for the war effort, leaving merchants across provincial France to organize their own emergency fiduciary systems. The Société du Commerce stepped into that vacuum, issuing locally redeemable tokens that circulated by mutual trust among participating traders.
Iron was an unglamorous substitute — prone to rust, difficult to strike cleanly — chosen purely because copper was unavailable.