20 Francs Piedfort gold

The Institut d'Émission d'Outre-Mer was established in 1966 to manage currency for France's Pacific territories — New Caledonia, French Polynesia, and Wallis and Futuna — following the dissolution of earlier colonial monetary arrangements. Piedfort issues from the IEOM were struck in very limited numbers, primarily for presentation and archival purposes rather than any circulation intent, and the 1979 gold piedfort series remains among the most sparsely documented of the institution's proof-quality output.

At roughly double the planchet thickness of a standard strike, the gold content here is substantial — a deliberate signal of institutional prestige in an issue never meant to pass through a cashier's hands.