A C.E.F. Canteen Token, WW1.

 

 

In France , during the First World War, coinage tended to become scarcer and scarcer even as demand for it rose. At the outbreak, the smallest French denominations were in bronze, the 25-centimes in nickel and the ½- and 1-franc in silver. Copper and nickel are both metals vitally needed by the military, especially the latter. It's not surprising, then, that the bronze 1-, 2-, 5- and 10-centime pieces had smaller mintages and the nickel 25-centime disappear altogether. By 1917, the 5-, 10- and 25-centime pieces became rather small copper-nickel (only 25% nickel) coins, rendered all the lighter by having a hole in the center. Although the silver 50-centimes and 1-franc coins were struck by the tens of millions, most were soon popped into hoards and to this day UNCs may be purchased for very modest prices.

 

But at the time there was an apparent coin shortage – not helped at all by the fact that the smallest French note was of a 5-franc denomination. Therefore municipalities, corporations and private individuals engaged in having their own “token” coinages struck. Cheap metals such as aluminum, iron and zinc were favourites and 5- through 25-centimes as the most widely-issued denominations.

 

One such issue was that shown above (enlarged). A set of two such tokens were released by the 5 th Canadian Battalion, 1st Canadian Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (although usually lumped in with the British ) The tokens were struck in 1916 and used for the rest of the war in the “dry canteens” to make change for the 5-franc note. There were two denominations: a ¾-inch brass ½-franc and a 1-inch aluminum 1-franc. Both were uniface and much alike except for the denomination. Mintage for both was 200 each although (possibly by error) a few brass 1-franc pieces were also struck. Officially, they were not “tokens” but rather “checks”. All are scarce today, with the brass franc moderately rare.

Wayne Jacobs is numismatic expert. He is the award winning author of numerous articles. He is the secretary and editor of the "Mid-Island Coin Club Numismatic Journal"of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island , British Columbia. The MICC journal are hosted here: MICC webpages Copyright 2006 Wayne Jacobs. This article may be reprinted freely for non commercial purpose only if the resource box is left intact, linking back to us.