500 Euros 70 years of peace in Europe

Issued in 2015 to mark seventy years since the end of World War II in Europe, this piece belongs to a French commemorative program that has leaned increasingly toward large-format gold in the 2010s. The 155.5g weight places it in the five-troy-ounce category — a format the Monnaie de Paris uses for its prestige tier, where the premium over spot is substantial and the collector audience narrow.

The timing is pointed: 2015 also marked the centenary of some of the worst fighting on the Western Front, making the peace anniversary politically loaded in France in ways it was not elsewhere.