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1⁄600 Piastre Piedfort Essai
| Issuer | Monnaie de Paris |
|---|---|
| Year | 1905 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | 25 mm |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | Round zinc coin with a central square hole flanked by four Chinese characters in traditional regular script (kaishu), arranged in the classic cash-coin reading order: right, left, top, bottom. The characters 通寶 (Thông Bảo, meaning Universal Currency) appear on the right and left, while 六百分之一 (Lục Bách Phân Chi Nhất, meaning One Part of Six Hundred) is distributed across the top and bottom registers. The raised characters are bold and well-defined against the flat field, directly evoking the traditional Vietnamese and Chinese cash coin format. |
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| Additional information |
The 1/600 piastre was produced for French Tunisia, a denomination so fractional it was designed to function within the local market economy at the absolute base of the currency system. A piedfort essai — struck at double the standard flan thickness as a presentation or trial piece — was never intended for circulation. The Monnaie de Paris routinely produced such pieces for official archival sets and ministerial approval samples.
Zinc was an unusual choice for an essai, more commonly reserved for wartime emergency coinage than for proof-of-concept strikes.