1923 2 Francs

It actually is considered a proper coin, rather than a token - at least, it's listed in the Krause coin catalogues under "France" as a coin, rather than being given a "Tn" number. Here it is on NGC.

It sort of falls in between government-issued "coinage" and notgeld tokens. French Notgeld tokens are typically issued by local city chambers-of-commerce. This piece was issued by the national body.


France suffered from long, drawn-out ordinary inflation after WWI, rather than German-style hyperinflation. From Wikipedia:


Basically, the reason for the issue of these token-coins was that pre-WWI France was on the Latin Monetary Union silver/gold bimetallic standard, and the French government had not yet given up hope that eventual payment by the Germans of the war reparations demanded of them would mean that the old LMU system could be revived, so they were reluctant to issue debased government coinage. But while they were waiting the people still needed coins, especially since the old pre-war stuff was being hoarded as it was now worth far more than face value. So the Chamber of Commerce was authorized to make these coins, known as "money of necessity".