5 Centimes - Chambre Syndicale des Commerçants - Perpignan [66] Aluminium

Issued by the Perpignan merchants' syndicate during the acute small-change shortage that gripped France from 1914 onward, this token is one of hundreds of locally produced nécessité pieces that filled the gap left by the near-total disappearance of bronze and copper coinage hoarded at the outbreak of war. The Chambre de Commerce issues are well documented, but syndicate-level tokens from individual trade bodies are considerably less catalogued, which explains the cluster of variant references in El Moneder — multiple emission dates across the 1917–1924 window produced distinguishable die states now treated as separate listings.