2 francs Semeuse Piéfort or

The Semeuse piéforts in gold were produced by the Monnaie de Paris as collector issues running parallel to the circulating silver and nickel series — never intended for commerce, struck in strictly limited numbers for the subscription market that the Paris Mint had cultivated since the 1960s. The piéfort format itself, always double the thickness of the circulation strike, originated as a mint practice going back to the Ancien Régime, when such pieces were produced as presentation specimens for officials and foreign dignitaries to demonstrate die quality.

The .920 fineness is the traditional French standard for gold coinage, unchanged from nineteenth-century practice.