10 Centimes - Chambre de commerce - Dijon [21] Silver Pattern

French chambers of commerce were authorized to issue emergency token coinage during World War I after the near-total disappearance of small bronze and copper-nickel state coinage from circulation — hoarded, melted, or simply overwhelmed by wartime demand. Dijon's chamber struck aluminum and cardboard issues for general use; this silver striking was never intended to circulate.

Pattern strikes in silver from provincial French emergency issues are essentially presentation or trial pieces, produced in tiny numbers outside the official minting run. The absence of a Elie Morel reference number suggests it has not been firmly catalogued in the standard French necessity coinage literature.