40 Centimes - Union des commerçants - Montagnac [34]

Montagnac, a small wine-market town in the Hérault, saw its local merchants' union issue brass tokens like this one during the late 19th or early 20th century to address chronic small-change shortages that periodically strangled retail trade in provincial France. These commercial federations operated outside state monetary authority entirely, issuing scrip redeemable only within their member network — a practical workaround that the Banque de France tolerated more than it approved.

The Elie Morin reference system catalogued dozens of such Hérault issues, and the subdivision numbering for Montagnac suggests at least four distinct token types from this union alone.