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

When the French government failed to supply sufficient small change during the First World War, regional chambers of commerce across France began issuing their own emergency token coinage — a phenomenon known as monnaie de nécessité. The Provençal region's chambers, covering Marseille, Arles, Aix, and Apt, coordinated a joint issue rather than each striking separately, an administrative consolidation that was itself unusual among the dozens of French regional emergency issues of the period.

This zinc piece is catalogued as a pattern (essai), meaning it never entered circulation. The El Mon reference 10.4 places it among a small group of trial strikes documented for this type.