10 euros De Gaulle / Adenauer essai

This piece commemorates the 1963 Élysée Treaty, the Franco-German friendship accord signed by de Gaulle and Adenauer that formalized postwar reconciliation between the two countries. Issued as an essai — a trial strike produced outside normal circulation runs, typically for official presentation or archival purposes — it was never legal tender. France produced essais like this routinely through the late twentieth century, often in small quantities through the Monnaie de Paris for collector and diplomatic distribution.

Adenauer had in fact resigned the chancellorship in 1963, the same year the treaty was signed, under considerable internal party pressure.