20 Franc French Third Republic (1870-1940) Gold

1878, France (3rd Republic). Beautiful Gold 20 Francs Coin.

Mint year: 1878 Mint Place: Paris (A)

Denomination: 20 Francs

References: Friedberg 533, KM-826.

Material: Gold (.900) .1867 oz ASW

Diameter: 21mm Weight: 6.45gm

Obverse: Standing winged genius inscribing table, which rests on a column. Fasces, topped by swearing hand to left, cock to right. Comment: Designer´s signature below (Dupré). Legend: REPUBLIC FRANCAISE

Reverse: Value (“20 FRANCS”) and date (“1878”) within wreath. Mint initial (A) below, flanked by privy marks. Legend: LIBERTE EGALITÈ FRATERNITE (cornucopia) A (fasces)

The French Third Republic (French: La Troisième République, sometimes written as La IIIe République) was the republican government of France between the end of the Second French Empire (following the defeat of Louis-Napoléon in the Franco-Prussian war) in 1870 and the Vichy Regime after the invasion of France by the German Third Reich in 1940.

Adolphe Thiers, recognized as le Libérateur du Territoire and one who rallied himself to the Republic in the 1870s, called republicanism in the 1870s “the form of government that divides France least”. The Third Republic endured seventy years, making it the longest lasting regime in France since the collapse of the Ancien Régime in the French Revolution of 1789.