10 Centimes - Union Commerciale et Industrielle - Caen [14]

The Union Commerciale et Industrielle de Caen issued this token during the prolonged small-change shortage that gripped France in the years following World War I. Federal coinage in low denominations had effectively collapsed — the wartime hoarding of bronze and copper, combined with metal requisitioning, left retailers across Normandy unable to make change. Local chambers of commerce and merchant associations stepped in, issuing aluminium and cardboard substitutes that circulated with semi-official tolerance. Caen's merchant federation was among dozens of such bodies across France doing the same thing simultaneously.