100 Francs - Louis Philippe Pattern

This 1831 piece is an essai struck at the Paris Mint in the early months of Louis-Philippe's July Monarchy, a regime that came to power not through hereditary right but through the revolutionary barricades of July 1830. The new government needed coinage that projected legitimate authority quickly, and the Monnaie de Paris produced multiple pattern trials in varying metals and weights before settling on production specifications.

Silver-plated bronze was a common trial medium — cheap enough to produce in quantity for approval circulation among officials, convincing enough in hand to assess aesthetic merit. The 8.62g weight does not correspond to any adopted standard for the denomination.