5 Centimes - Unions commerciales

Issued by a merchant cooperative in the Ain département during the coin shortage that gripped France in the early 1920s, this token is one of dozens of hyperlocal commercial union issues that briefly substituted for state coinage in small French towns. Oyonnax and Bellegarde were both industrial centers — Oyonnax already establishing itself as the plastics and combs manufacturing hub it would become — and their merchants pooled issuance to manage day-to-day small transactions the Monnaie de Paris simply wasn't supplying at the time.