25 Centimes

This is an emergency token, not a coin — issued by a local merchants' association in the Vendée to plug a chronic shortage of small change that persisted in provincial France well into the 1920s. The national government had never adequately resolved the fractional coinage deficit that began during World War I, and chambers of commerce, syndicates, and municipal bodies across France filled the gap themselves. Les Sables-d'Olonne, a fishing port and emerging seaside resort on the Atlantic coast, saw enough commercial traffic to justify an organized local issue.

The Elias Monetary catalog reference 10.3 indicates at least two other varieties exist in this series from the same issuer.