25 Centimes Chambers of Commerce Coinage

French Somaliland's Chambers of Commerce issues of the early 1920s filled a chronic small-change vacuum that the colonial administration had never adequately addressed. The Djibouti chamber issued these aluminium pieces under emergency necessity authority — the same legal framework that allowed French provincial chambers across the empire to produce token coinage when metropolitan supply chains failed. Aluminium was chosen for fractional denominations precisely because its low intrinsic value discouraged hoarding and melting.

The El Monedero reference confirms this as a recognized colonial necessity issue rather than a purely local token.