5 Centimes

The Chambre de Commerce de Deux-Sèvres issued this token during France's post-WWI small-change crisis, when federal coinage production lagged catastrophically behind civilian demand. Regional chambers of commerce across France filled the gap with locally authorized aluminium nécessités, accepted within their département but worthless beyond it. Deux-Sèvres, a predominantly rural department in the Poitou-Charentes, had little industrial leverage — these pieces circulated through markets and small commerce rather than factory payrolls.

The 1922 date places this among the later issues of the nécessité wave, most of which had peaked by 1921.