1 Franc - Napoleon III

Napoleon III's silver franc series of 1853–1863 coincides almost exactly with the Second Empire's period of monetary consolidation, during which France was the driving force behind the Latin Monetary Union — a multinational silver standard that would formally launch in 1865 with France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy aligning their coinage on identical specifications. This franc was effectively the template around which those negotiations revolved.

The series spans two distinct portrait types — the laureate head replacing the bare head in 1861 — making date and type attribution essential before grading. Gadoury 460 covers the bare head issue specifically.