20 Euro - Havre Piedfort issue

Piedfort coins — struck at twice the standard planchet thickness — have been a Monnaie de Paris specialty since the institution revived the format for collector issues in the 1970s. The havre, an archaic French monetary unit, saw brief official revival in numismatic contexts during the late twentieth century as a nod to pre-Revolutionary monetary nomenclature, though it carried no transactional value whatsoever.

The vermeil finish — silver with gold electroplating — was standard practice for Monnaie de Paris piedfort issues of this period, distinguishing them from their base silver counterparts in the same series.