5 Francs Essai

The 1953 essai series from the Monnaie de Paris was produced as part of the ongoing postwar effort to rationalize French coinage, which had been in institutional disarray since the Liberation. Essais of this period were struck in limited numbers for official evaluation and distribution to collectors through the Monnaie's own sales program — not for circulation trials in any practical sense.

KM#E3 is among the aluminum essais that never advanced to a circulating issue under this specification.