50 Centimes Essai, raised design

Essais of the Fourth Republic's postwar coinage were produced by the Monnaie de Paris as internal trials, allowing the administration to evaluate design and relief before committing to full production runs. This particular raised-design variant of the 1948 50 centimes never advanced to circulation — the type was ultimately rejected, making KM#E2 a dead-end in the coinage program rather than a stepping stone to an adopted design.

Survivors exist almost exclusively in the hands of collectors who acquired them through the Paris mint's own sales channels, the primary distribution route for French essais throughout the mid-twentieth century.