FRANCE - SECOND REPUBLIC - 2 FRANCS CERES 1849 PARIS - PCGS MS65

Second Republic (1848-1852), 2 francs Ceres, 1849, struck at Paris.

Obverse: head of Ceres left, crowned with ears of wheat, flowers, oak and laurel leaves, bound with a headband inscribed CONCORDIA, signed E. A. OUDINÉ below. Legend REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE, with a star at the top. Reverse: 2 / FRANCS / 1849 within an oak and laurel wreath tied with a ribbon. Legend LIBERTE EGALITE FRATERNITE. Mint letter A (Paris) below the knot.

Virtually as struck, with iridescent toning. Mint State.

Note: the head of Ceres is the work of Eugène-André Oudiné, winner of the coinage competition opened by the young Second Republic in 1848. Crowned with the fruits of the earth and bound with the word CONCORDIA, the goddess of the harvest embodies a Republic that sought to be nurturing and at peace. This 2 francs of 1849, the first year of the type, is among its earliest strikes. Oudiné’s portrait would return under the Third Republic and remain on the silver coinage until the end of the nineteenth century.