25 Centimes - Union des Commerçants Détaillants - Épernay [51] Brass

Épernay sits at the heart of the Champagne region, and by 1922 the town's retail merchants' union was issuing its own brass tokens to compensate for the chronic small-change shortage that had plagued French commerce since the First World War. The wartime melting of bronze coinage and the suspension of normal mint production left a gap that local chambers of commerce and trade associations across France filled with their own nécessité pieces — some towns issuing multiple denominations through competing organizations simultaneously.

The Union des Commerçants Détaillants functioned as a merchant cooperative, and acceptance of these tokens was effectively limited to member shops.