50 Francs Piedfort Essai

Piedfort essais from the Monnaie de Paris in this period were produced as struck specimens for official evaluation, not for circulation — their doubled thickness was a deliberate convention allowing die engravers and mint authorities to assess relief depth and metal flow before committing to production dies. The 1949 date places this piece in the immediate postwar monetary reconstruction, when France was still negotiating the practical realities of a debased coinage system under severe metal constraints imposed by occupation-era policy.

The KM#PE2 designation confirms this as a recognized piedfort type rather than a pattern curiosity, though surviving population figures remain thin.