An épreuve — a proof-standard trial strike — produced by the Paris Mint for official presentation or archive purposes, not for circulation. Oudiné refers to Eugène-André Oudiné, the chief engraver at the Monnaie de Paris from 1862 until his death in 1882, whose name the piece carries as attribution of the die work. Struck in gold rather than the copper of the circulation type, pieces like this were produced in tiny numbers, sometimes fewer than a dozen, for institutional record or ministerial presentation.
GEM 9.4 places it firmly within the specialist French proof trial series — a category where provenance matters as much as the coin itself.
An épreuve — a proof-standard trial strike — produced by the Paris Mint for official presentation or archive purposes, not for circulation. Oudiné refers to Eugène-André Oudiné, the chief engraver at the Monnaie de Paris from 1862 until his death in 1882, whose name the piece carries as attribution of the die work. Struck in gold rather than the copper of the circulation type, pieces like this were produced in tiny numbers, sometimes fewer than a dozen, for institutional record or ministerial presentation.
GEM 9.4 places it firmly within the specialist French proof trial series — a category where provenance matters as much as the coin itself.