5 Centimes

Issued during the acute metal shortages of WWI, this aluminium token is one of hundreds of emergency necessity coins — monnaies de nécessité — produced by French municipalities, chambers of commerce, and local authorities when the wartime hoarding of bronze and copper coin stripped small-denomination currency from everyday circulation almost entirely. Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a prosperous suburb west of Paris long associated with the royal château, was among the smaller communes to issue independently rather than defer to a regional chamber.

Aluminium was the compromise material — unhoarded, light, and already available industrially.