1 Cent Piedfort Pattern

Piedforts — coins struck on blanks of double or greater than standard thickness — were produced by the Monnaie de Paris primarily as presentation pieces and archival specimens rather than for any circulation purpose. The 1908 date places this squarely within the period when France was still operating under the franc germinal system established by Napoleon in 1803, with the Paris mint supplying pattern and piedfort strikes to collectors, ministry officials, and institutional archives as a matter of routine documentation.

Lec#63 references Leccompte's catalog of French patterns, the authoritative source for this material. Survivorship is typically low — these were never meant to proliferate.