10 Centimes

Épernay's Union des Commerçants Détaillants issued this aluminium jeton during the acute small-change shortage that followed World War I, when the French Treasury struggled to keep low-denomination coinage in circulation and local commerce ground against the problem daily. Chamber of commerce tokens and retailer-association pieces proliferated across France between roughly 1918 and 1927 to fill the gap — Épernay, sitting at the heart of the Champagne trade, was no exception.

The aluminium composition was a deliberate economy; metal costs mattered when a merchants' association was self-financing the issue.