ECU - Sete

The Amicale Numismatique du Midi issued this piece as a local ecu — a category of privately produced trade tokens that proliferated across France in the early 1990s following the broader European ecu's rise as a parallel accounting currency. Dozens of regional numismatic clubs and municipal associations struck their own ecu-denominated pieces, partly as collectibles and partly as a small act of regional identity before the euro made the entire ecu concept obsolete within a decade.

Sète — the Hérault port city built on a narrow strip between the Étang de Thau and the Mediterranean — was a natural subject for the Midi club, which drew its membership from the Languedoc region. These local issues were struck in very limited quantities and rarely circulated outside the issuing association's own events.