Ecu de Lambesc

The Écu de Lambesc was a French fantasy piece issued as part of Paris Mint's long-running practice of striking collector écus tied to European currency unification discussions. The 1993 date places it squarely in the year the Maastricht Treaty entered into force, when French public enthusiasm for a common European currency was fractured — the 1992 referendum had passed by just 51.05%, the narrowest possible mandate.

Lambesc, a commune in Bouches-du-Rhône, had no particular monetary authority; the name references regional identity politics that the Monnaie de Paris occasionally exploited for collector series.