10 Venezolanos Pattern

Venezuela's coinage system in the 1870s was in flux. The country had formally adopted the metric system and was aligning its currency structure with the Latin Monetary Union, though it never formally joined. These 1875 pattern pieces were part of that exploratory process — proposals for a denomination that never reached circulation, struck in Paris as the government weighed how far to harmonize with the French-led franc zone.

At 16.129 g in .900 gold, the weight mirrors the French double eagle standard scaled to a distinctly Venezuelan denomination. The pattern was never approved for issue.