5 Francs - Mohammed V Essai

Essai pieces from the French Moroccan protectorate were struck at the Paris Mint as official pattern submissions — not experimental curiosities, but formal trial strikes produced for administrative approval before any production run was authorized. This 1946 issue preceded the full circulating series under Mohammed V, who was at that moment still nominally under French supervision but would be deposed and exiled to Madagascar by 1953 — a political crisis that abruptly disrupted the coinage program he nominally authorized.

Lec#242 is the standard reference for this essai type, with surviving examples almost exclusively appearing in near-pristine condition given they never entered commerce.