10 Francs - Louis II Essai

Louis II issued this essai — a pattern strike produced for approval rather than circulation — in 1945, the same year Monaco emerged from Italian and German wartime occupation. The principality had operated under severe constraints since 1943, and resuming sovereign coinage was among the first acts of restored administrative normalcy. Essais from this period were struck in very limited numbers, typically a few hundred pieces at most, distributed primarily to officials and collectors rather than entering any monetary supply.