5 centimes - Dépôt d'Alençon

The Dépôt d'Alençon was one of dozens of French internment and detention facilities that issued their own small-denomination paper during the First World War, when the disappearance of metal coinage from circulation created an acute shortage of everyday change. The Ministère de l'Intérieur — rather than the Banque de France or a municipal authority — was the issuing authority because these notes were produced for use within a controlled population, not the general public.

Five-centime denominations at this level were almost purely functional tokens, rarely leaving the facility that issued them.