This coin is genuine money of French Indochina from World War II. The demands of fighting the war strained the supplies of traditional coinage metals for many countries. A number of mints experimented with the use of other metals such as steel and zinc. The minting of this coin in aluminum coincided with the beginning of a great expansion in the use of aluminum as an acceptable coinage metal. A large number of developing countries throughout the world are currently using aluminum as a metal of choice for their smaller denominations. The hole in this coin has been influenced by the traditional Chinese round coin with a square hole that was in use for more than two thousand years. Those holes were originally used as an aid to manufacture and rope together large numbers of coins for larger transactions in the absence of abundant precious metal supplies. This example of ancient innovation meets modern innovation and would make a meaningful addition to your world coins collection.