5 Centimes

Miliana's 1916 emergency token is a product of the acute small-change shortage that paralyzed French Algeria during the First World War, when metal coinage — copper and nickel both — was systematically withdrawn from circulation for war production. Communes across Algeria were authorized to issue their own cardboard bons de nécessité to fill the gap, and dozens did so, each contracting with whatever local printer was available. The Saumon-Marcel Léon shop in Algiers served several municipalities in the Alger department during this period.

The handstamp is the only meaningful security element, applied to authenticate individual pieces at the time of issue.