5 Centimes - Chambre de commerce - Dijon [21] Brass Pattern

Issued by the Dijon Chamber of Commerce during the acute small-change shortage that gripped France in the middle war years, when hoarding and metal requisitions had effectively stripped copper and bronze coinage from everyday circulation. Hundreds of French chambers of commerce, municipalities, and commercial associations printed or struck their own emergency tokens between 1914 and 1922 to keep retail transactions moving. This brass pattern piece — rather than a struck circulation issue — suggests it was submitted for approval or produced as a reference strike before or instead of a final authorized run.