Pierre Mendès France — 5 Francs 1992

Name: Pierre Mendès France — 5 Francs 1992
Brand: monnaie de paris
Price: 99.00 EUR
Availability: InStock

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Monnaie de Paris · Belle Épreuve

Pierre Mendès France — 5 Francs Silver 1992

Tenth anniversary of his death

Metal	Silver 900‰
Weight	12 g
Diameter	28.85 mm
Quality	Belle Épreuve (Proof)
Engraver	Émile Rousseau, Monnaie de Paris
Authorised mintage	10,000 specimens (silver Belle Épreuve)
References	Gadoury 776 — Le Franc F.342
Delivery	Original red Monnaie de Paris case · numbered certificate signed by Pierre Consigny, Director of the Monnaies et Médailles

Obverse. The field is split into two unequal arcs. The larger left arc carries a relief portrait of Pierre Mendès France in his late years; the narrower right arc is incused, with PIERRE MENDÈS FRANCE in two lines. The composition borrows the visual logic of a profile cut from a press cutting — a deliberate echo of the man’s long career as a public commentator after he left office.

Reverse. Two interlaced arcs sweep across the field, evoking the titles of his political writing — Gouverner, c’est choisir and Choisir. Face value 5 F at the left in relief, RF and the date 1992 at the right in incuse, on three lines.

Context

Pierre Mendès France was Prime Minister of France from June 1954 to February 1955. He is remembered for ending the Indochina War within the thirty-one-day deadline he set himself, for opening the path to Tunisian autonomy, and — outside government — for a campaign to put a glass of milk in front of every French schoolchild. He died in October 1982. The 1992 coin marks the tenth anniversary of his death; the engraver Émile Rousseau — who also signed the Zola Germinal — chose a deliberately documentary register, with no allegorical frame.