3 Sols

Lyon's 3 Sols copper pieces were struck in 1793 during the city's two-month siege by Republican forces — punishment for the Federalist revolt against the Jacobin-controlled Convention. The city had executed the local Jacobin leader Chalier in July, and Paris responded with an army. Cut off from normal supply chains, the municipal authorities improvised coinage to keep commerce functioning inside the walls.

When Lyon finally fell in October, the Convention ordered the city partially demolished and its name struck from the map, replaced with "Ville-Affranchie" — Liberated City. Coins struck under the siege government became, overnight, artifacts of a condemned municipality.