25 Centimes Saint-Menehould, UCM

The Union Commerciale de Sainte-Menehould issued these nickel-plated zinc tokens during World War One, when the French government's requisitioning of metal coinage for military use left towns across the country effectively without small change. Local chambers of commerce and merchant associations stepped in to fill the gap, producing their own emergency fractional currency — a practice the state reluctantly tolerated rather than formally authorized. Sainte-Menehould, a small town in the Marne department, sits close enough to the Western Front that its commercial life was substantially disrupted throughout the conflict.