2 Francs Piedfort, copper-nickel

Piéforts are struck at twice the normal planchet thickness, a practice the Monnaie de Paris has maintained since the medieval period primarily for presentation sets and official proofing purposes — they were never released into circulation. The 1948 issue came at a pivotal moment for the French franc: the postwar monetary reorganization had already stripped enormous purchasing power from the currency, and the standard circulating 2 francs piece of this period was itself short-lived within the Fourth Republic's unstable monetary framework.

KM#PE4 is among the scarcer piéforts catalogued from this era, with mintages characteristically tiny — often in the dozens rather than hundreds.