¼ ECU

The ECU — European Currency Unit — was never legal tender in France or anywhere else, but the Monnaie de Paris began striking these collector pieces in 1987 as a calculated bid to promote European monetary integration ahead of the Maastricht Treaty negotiations. France was among the most aggressive advocates for a common European currency, and these issues had quiet political backing from the Élysée. The ECU itself was a basket currency, its value pegged to a weighted average of member-state currencies through the European Monetary System established in 1979.

The .950 silver fineness is unusually high for a modern commemorative — a deliberate quality signal.