50 Francs Independence, Trial Strike

Gabon achieved independence from France on August 17, 1960, and this trial strike dates to that transitional moment when the new republic was establishing the visual and monetary grammar of statehood. Trial pieces from francophone African nations of this period were typically produced in Paris at the Monnaie de Paris, which retained minting contracts with most of its former colonial territories well into the postcolonial decades. Most never progressed beyond the essai stage.