5 Centimes Essai en maillechort de Merley, type II

Merley's second essai type for the 5 centimes was part of the broader French effort in the early Third Republic to find a cheaper, more durable substitute for bronze in small denomination coinage. Maillechort — a copper-nickel-zinc alloy — was periodically revisited as a candidate despite never achieving official adoption for circulation coinage at this denomination. These trial pieces were struck at Paris expressly for internal evaluation, not distribution, which explains both their rarity and their consistent quality of preservation.

The GEM 13.11 reference places this among a narrow series of documented essais from the same period, most of which saw no production sequel.