5 Centimes

The Chambres de Commerce emergency issues from the Hérault department date to the First World War, when the hoarding of metal coinage created acute shortages across provincial France. Local chambers of commerce were authorized to plug the gap with their own token issues — a stopgap that persisted in some regions well into the early 1920s. Aluminium was chosen precisely because it held no intrinsic value worth hoarding.

El Monedero reference 15.4 distinguishes this from at least three other Hérault chamber issues of the same period.