5 Centimes - ville de Besançon [25] Silver

Besançon's 1917 emergency coinage was authorized by the municipal government after the wartime metal requisitions and hoarding of the early war years had stripped the region of small-denomination specie almost entirely. French local authorities across the northeast issued their own necessity money during this period, but Besançon's choice of silver rather than the cardboard or zinc used by most communes was unusual — and almost certainly reflects access to local watchmaking industry silver stocks, given the city's centuries-old role as the center of French horology.