5 Centimes - Bon de cantine Vierzon

Canteen tokens issued by French prisoner-of-war depots during the First World War occupy a narrow, often overlooked corner of emergency finance. The Vierzon depot — a transit and internment facility in the Cher department — issued these small-denomination bons to allow prisoners limited purchasing power within the camp canteen, insulating the surrounding civilian economy from any direct contact with prisoner spending. The French state discouraged the use of ordinary currency inside such facilities for both security and control reasons.

Paper bons at this denomination were essentially consumables, discarded or destroyed after redemption. Survivors are scarce for exactly that reason.