20 Francs - Louis II

Louis II had ruled Monaco through the German occupation with studied ambiguity — neither collaborating openly nor resisting — and when postwar French monetary reforms restructured the franc zone in 1945, Monaco scrambled to assert its coinage rights under the 1918 treaty governing its monetary relationship with France. This 1947 issue was among the last struck under his reign; Louis died in May 1949, succeeded by Rainier III. Copper-nickel was the postwar compromise metal across much of Western Europe, aluminum and nickel having been rationed heavily during the occupation years.