10 Centimes - Marie-Adélaïde Essai

Marie-Adélaïde became Grand Duchess of Luxembourg in 1912 at seventeen, and her reign coincided almost immediately with the German occupation of 1914. The 1915 essai series — trial pieces never adopted for circulation — was produced under occupied conditions, a fact that renders their official status ambiguous at best. Germany allowed Luxembourg's institutions to function with limited autonomy, and some coinage work continued, though full circulation issues bearing her effigy remained politically complicated throughout the occupation.

Marie-Adélaïde abdicated in 1919 under Allied pressure, accused of insufficient resistance to German authority.