10 Centimes Ceres, Piedfort in nickel silver

Piéforts are institutional objects, not coins intended for circulation — the Monnaie de Paris produced them for archival purposes, as presentation pieces for ministry officials, and occasionally for sale to collectors. This nickel silver example of the Cérès 10 centimes type was struck at roughly double the standard thickness, the defining characteristic of the piéfort format. The GEM reference places it among a documented but small series of such pieces from the late Third Republic.

Nickel silver — an alloy of copper, nickel, and zinc containing no actual silver — was occasionally substituted in piéfort production when the intent was to approximate a metallic finish distinct from the bronze circulation issue without committing to precious metal.