10 Francs

The 10 Franc gold piece of 1850–51 was struck during the presidency of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, just before his coup of December 1851 dissolved the Second Republic entirely. The timing matters: coins from 1851 were still being struck when he seized permanent power, making the republican issue a short-lived artifact of a government that lasted barely three years. Production ended abruptly as the newly proclaimed Second Empire demanded its own coinage.

Mintages were modest across both years combined, and attrition through melting — common for small-denomination gold — has kept survivors genuinely scarce in any grade.