500 Francs / 75 Euros Hôtel de Ville

Issued as part of the Monnaie de Paris's short-lived bimetallic commemorative program of the late 1990s, this platinum striking was produced alongside a gold counterpart in anticipation of the euro transition — the franc face value purely nominal, the euro denomination a calculated hedge toward the currency that would replace it within five years. The Hôtel de Ville series drew on Paris's municipal architecture at a moment when the city's administration was keenly interested in projecting institutional continuity through the changeover.

The .999 platinum specification placed this well outside anything intended for circulation.