Besançon issued its own emergency token coinage in 1917 because the wartime hoarding of metal coins had left French municipalities functionally without small change. The national government had effectively lost control of petty currency circulation by mid-war, and dozens of French towns followed suit with locally authorized nécessité issues. Besançon's series is among the better-documented provincial examples, referenced in El Món's catalog of French necessity coinage.
Besançon issued its own emergency token coinage in 1917 because the wartime hoarding of metal coins had left French municipalities functionally without small change. The national government had effectively lost control of petty currency circulation by mid-war, and dozens of French towns followed suit with locally authorized nécessité issues. Besançon's series is among the better-documented provincial examples, referenced in El Món's catalog of French necessity coinage.