50 Euros Libertas Americana

The Libertas Americana medal was Benjamin Franklin's personal project — he designed it himself in Paris in 1782 and had Augustin Dupré engrave it, distributing examples to French court officials as a piece of diplomatic persuasion as much as commemoration. Franklin understood objects. The original bronze medal was never official U.S. coinage; it was propaganda, issued privately by the American minister to France to cultivate goodwill at a critical moment in the alliance.

The Monnaie de Paris has returned to this design repeatedly in its modern bullion and prestige programs, trading on the medal's Franco-American symbolism. KM#3265 is one in a series of restrikes extending that tradition into the current decade.