5 Centimes - Chambres de commerce - Région provençale 'Four Towns' Aluminium Pattern

During World War I, the French state's metal requisitions and hoarding stripped small-denomination coinage almost entirely from circulation. Regional chambers of commerce across France responded by issuing their own emergency tokens — necessity pieces, not official currency. The Provençal region's chambers, spanning Marseille, Arles, Aix, and Apt, collaborated on a unified issue rather than each producing separately, which itself was unusual.

The aluminium pattern recorded as El Mon#10.5 precedes the issued type and likely represents a trial submission for design or alloy approval. Very few such patterns survive outside institutional collections.