5 Cent Pattern

By 1943, Japanese occupation had severed French Indochina from its normal supply chains, forcing the colonial administration to experiment with aluminium as copper and nickel became strategically unavailable. This piece is a pattern — never approved for circulation — surviving in two documented die varieties recorded by Lecompte as 121a and 121b, distinguished by differences in the alignment or finish of the dies.

The Vichy-administered mint authority in Hanoi was attempting to solve a real monetary shortage, but the pattern was abandoned before production began.