25 Centimes - Nouméa Banque de l'Indochine

The Banque de l'Indochine — a private institution holding the note-issuing monopoly across French colonial territories in Asia and the Pacific — extended its reach to New Caledonia during a period when the mainland supply of small-denomination coinage was chronically disrupted by wartime metal shortages. These aluminium pieces were a local emergency measure, struck to fill a genuine gap in everyday commerce rather than as part of any coordinated metropolitan monetary policy. Nouméa's nickel mines produced much of the world's supply of that metal, yet the colony made do with aluminium for its own fractional currency.