1 Centime - Napoléon III pattern of obverse of Barre, tête laurée

This is an essai de coins — a trial striking used to evaluate Barre's laureate head design before committing to full production dies. Jean-Jacques Barre served as Graveur Général de la Monnaie from 1855 until his death in 1855, and his laureate portrait of Napoleon III competed internally with other proposed types throughout the early 1860s. Pattern pieces of this kind were produced in very small numbers, distributed among mint officials and occasionally the emperor himself, and almost never entered commerce through normal channels.