Essai de laminage du système Martin Maillechort/Cuivre 32 mm

The Martin system referenced in this piece's name was a proprietary rolling and plating process proposed in the 1880s as a potential solution to France's ongoing search for a practical, fraud-resistant coinage alloy. Maillechort — a French-developed nickel silver alloy known elsewhere as German silver — had been in commercial production since the 1820s, but bonding it reliably to a copper core for coinage presented persistent adhesion and durability problems. This essai exists precisely because the question was not yet settled.

France ultimately did not adopt the Martin lamination process for circulating coinage.