25 Centimes

Issued by the Union des Commerçants Détaillants d'Épernay — the local retailers' association of the Champagne capital — this token belongs to the wave of privately struck emergency coinage that flooded provincial France after World War I. The Chamber of Commerce issues that had sustained circulation during the war were expiring, and small-denomination coins remained chronically scarce well into the early 1920s. Local merchant associations stepped in across hundreds of French towns, producing aluminium and cardboard issues redeemable only within their networks.

Épernay's dependence on the champagne trade meant its merchant community was unusually organized and financially coherent — making a collective fiduciary issue like this administratively straightforward.