The Piéfort format — double or more the standard planchet thickness — has been used by the Monnaie de Paris for centuries as a presentation striking, originally produced for official verification of new coin types and later sold to collectors. The platinum Piéfort of the Hercule 10 francs takes this tradition to an extreme: at 103 grams of .999 platinum, the intrinsic metal value alone made these pieces extraordinarily costly to produce even at issue.
Mintages for platinum Piéforts from this period were typically measured in the dozens, not hundreds.
The Piéfort format — double or more the standard planchet thickness — has been used by the Monnaie de Paris for centuries as a presentation striking, originally produced for official verification of new coin types and later sold to collectors. The platinum Piéfort of the Hercule 10 francs takes this tradition to an extreme: at 103 grams of .999 platinum, the intrinsic metal value alone made these pieces extraordinarily costly to produce even at issue.
Mintages for platinum Piéforts from this period were typically measured in the dozens, not hundreds.