10 Centimes pattern by Pillard, reverse of Montagny

The Second Republic's coinage program of 1848 generated an extraordinary volume of competing pattern submissions — the political rupture of February that year demanded new coins quickly, and the Monnaie de Paris solicited designs from multiple artists simultaneously. This piece pairs work by two of them: the reverse die belongs to Jean-François Domard dit Montagny, a sculptor and medallist who had produced work under Louis-Philippe, while the obverse is attributed to Pillard. Such cross-artist combinations were common in pattern trials, where dies were mixed and matched to test combinations before any type was officially adopted.

The "var." qualifiers on both primary references indicate this specific pairing sits outside the documented standard combinations — a die marriage not fully catalogued.