2 Francs Piefort Essai

Piefort essais from the immediate postwar period were produced in tiny quantities — typically fewer than 20 pieces — for submission to the French monetary authorities as striking trials, not for collectors. The 1948 aluminium essais coincide with France's postwar monetary reorganization, when the provisional government was still standardizing the coinage that would define the Fourth Republic.

The piefort format, struck at double the normal planchet thickness, was used to evaluate die quality and metal flow under pressure — a technical exercise, not a commemorative one.