100 Francs pattern of Guilbert

In the late 1920s, France was actively searching for a viable base-metal replacement for its worn and depleted silver franc coinage — a consequence of wartime requisitions and post-war monetary instability. The Monnaie de Paris commissioned multiple designers to submit competing patterns, and Guilbert's submission entered a crowded field that included proposals from Lindauer, Bazor, and others. Most never advanced beyond trial strikes.

The "var." notation against VG#5219 suggests this piece deviates from the catalogued standard — likely in edge treatment, metal batch, or die state — and such variants from pattern series of this period are rarely documented with any precision.