50 Euros Franc Germinal

The "Franc Germinal" designation refers to the monetary reform enacted by Napoleon Bonaparte in April 1803 — Germinal being the seventh month of the French Republican calendar — which established a fixed silver-to-gold ratio and created the most stable French monetary unit of the nineteenth century. The franc germinal survived, largely intact, until the economic pressures of World War I forced France off the bimetallic standard in 1914.

This Monnaie de Paris issue belongs to their recurring commemorative program revisiting foundational moments in French monetary history. Mintage on these annual gold pieces is tightly controlled, typically in the low hundreds.