Catalog
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| Issuer | Ville de Hyères |
|---|---|
| Year | 1997 |
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| Value | 2 Euros (2 EUR) |
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| Obverse description | A panoramic view of the city of Hyères depicted in fine engraved detail, featuring a tall palm tree dominating the left-center of the field, with a coastal townscape in the background to the right including a church bell tower and traditional stone houses. A sailing vessel is visible on the sea to the left, and tropical vegetation including agave plants occupies the lower foreground. The design is rendered in a picturesque, scenic style with no inscriptions in the field. |
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| Mint | Monnaie de Paris, Paris (and Pessac starting 1973), France (864-date) |
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| Additional information |
Hyères issued this piece in 1997 as a local emergency coinage — one of several hundred French municipalities that struck copper-nickel tokens during the 1990s to facilitate small commercial transactions at markets, fairs, and municipal events. French law technically prohibited these from functioning as currency, so issuers categorized them as "bons de nécessité" or commercial tokens, a legal fiction both sides found convenient.
Hyères, one of the oldest resort towns on the Côte d'Azur, had already lost its status as the fashionable destination to Cannes and Nice by the early twentieth century — a decline that gives these late-century civic tokens a faintly nostalgic municipal pride.