5 Centimes

The Chambres de Commerce emergency coinage of the early 1920s filled a vacuum left by the French state's inability to supply adequate small change after World War I. Hoarding, melting, and wartime disruption had gutted the bronze centime series, and by 1920 regional chambers of commerce across France were issuing their own aluminium and zinc tokens under official sanction. The Lot department, centered on Cahors, was among the smaller issuers — its issues consequently turning up in lower quantities than those of the major industrial departments.