1 Franc Piefort Essai

Pièforts are struck at double or greater thickness on specially prepared planchets, produced exclusively for official presentation and archival purposes — never for circulation. The 1948 aluminium franc piefort from the Monnaie de Paris falls into that narrow category of postwar French essais issued as the Fourth Republic was still stabilizing its monetary infrastructure following the destruction and economic dislocation of the Occupation years. Aluminium had become France's practical coinage metal by necessity during this period, cheap and abundant where silver and nickel were not.

KM#PE1 designation confirms this as the first catalogued piefort entry for the type.