Published on 2 October 2026 by Gold Reserve
Five families of French coins carry the face value of fifty francs, struck over nearly a century and a half and in three different metals. The most valuable is a gold coin, and more precisely a 50 franc gold coin of the Third Republic, known as the Génie, some dates of which were struck in runs of only one or two hundred pieces. Behind it come the 50 franc gold coins of Napoléon III, then the commemorative 50 franc gold coins of the Fifth Republic, which never served as money, then, a very long way behind, the silver 50 franc Hercule, and finally the 50 franc Guiraud, which contains no precious metal at all.
If you are holding a fifty franc coin and want to know what it is worth, the first thing to do is not to look for a price. It is to work out which of the five you have in your hand, because the gap between the most modest and the rarest runs into thousands of euros.
The five families of 50 franc coins
The 50 franc Napoléon III gold coin, 1855 to 1868
This is the best known of the 50 franc gold coins. It exists in two types, the bare head struck from 1855 to 1860, then the laureate head from 1862 to 1868. Both share the same physical characteristics, a gross weight of 16.13 grams, 900 thousandths fine, and a diameter of 28 millimetres.
Only two mints struck it, Paris, which signs its coins with an A, and Strasbourg, which signs BB. No 50 franc gold coin of Napoléon III ever came out of Bordeaux, contrary to what is sometimes written.
The mintages bear no relation to those of the twentieth century, and above all they vary enormously from one mint to the other within the same year. In 1855, Paris struck 151,662 coins while Strasbourg struck 6,850, a ratio of one to twenty-two.
The scarcest date in the family is the laureate head 1868 from Strasbourg, with about 1,795 pieces according to the Le Franc catalogue, a figure the Heritage listing of May 2024 supports by referring to a production of under two thousand coins. Next comes the laureate head 1865 from Paris, at 3,740 pieces. A Strasbourg 1856 at 3,803 coins is often quoted, but that line is flagged as unconfirmed by Numista and the Le Franc catalogue gives it no entry, so we do not present it as an established mintage.
The 50 franc Génie gold coin, 1878 to 1904
This is the rarest of them all, and the one almost every online comparison forgets. It carries the winged Genius of the Republic drawn by Augustin Dupré and engraved by Désiré-Albert Barre, and its edge bears the raised motto DIEU PROTEGE LA FRANCE, written without an accent on the coin.
Beware of one very common confusion, however, because that edge is not enough to identify it. The 50 franc Napoléon III laureate head carries exactly the same raised inscription. The two types also share the same gross weight of 16.13 grams, the same fineness of 900 thousandths and the same diameter of 28 millimetres. What separates them is on the faces, the winged Genius of the Republic and the legend RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE on one side, the imperial effigy and the legend EMPIRE FRANCAIS on the other. The dates never overlap, 1855 to 1868 for the Napoléon III and 1878 to 1904 for the Génie.
Its rarity comes from a fact that the 1878 to 1904 range hides completely, which is that striking was never continuous. Six circulation dates are catalogued, all from Paris, and for several of them the mintage is in the hundreds.
| Date | Mintage |
|---|---|
| 1878 | 5,294 |
| 1887 | 301 |
| 1889 | 100, on polished blanks |
| 1896 | 800 |
| 1900 | 200 |
| 1904 | 20,250 |
Those six lines add up to 26,945 coins for the whole type. Two other totals circulate, 26,975 and 26,645, the first counting thirty polished blanks of 1878 separately, the second leaving two dates blank. The gap between published totals therefore comes to 330 pieces, which changes nothing about the conclusion, this is the rarest gold type of the Third Republic. At one hundred pieces, the 1889 is no longer a rare coin, it is a cabinet piece that practically never appears on the market.
The 50 franc Hercule silver coin, 1974 to 1980
This is the most widespread by far, and by far the most searched for online. Struck to a little over 46 million pieces in seven years, it has a gross weight of 30 grams, 900 thousandths fine, for a diameter of 41 millimetres and a thickness of 2.70 millimetres.
One face carries the group of Hercules uniting Liberty, on the left, holding a pike topped with a Phrygian cap, and Equality, on the right, holding a level, after the drawing by Augustin Dupré. The republican motto runs along that side. The other face carries the face value within a wreath and the legend RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE, with the date in the exergue, below the value. Its edge is neither plain nor simply reeded, it carries raised motifs.
It ceased to be legal tender on 30 April 1980, only six years after it was first struck, the surge in the silver price having pushed the value of its metal well beyond its face value. It is therefore no longer a means of payment, but its 30 grams at 900 thousandths fine keep all their value. The 10 franc Hercule had been demonetised two months earlier, on 20 February 1980.
The 50 franc collector gold coins, 1991 to 2000
These are gold collector coins, most often commemorative, struck by the Monnaie de Paris in proof quality, known in French as Belle Épreuve, and they never circulated. Only five types carry this face value.
The 50 franc Bonaparte, dated 1991 to 1993, has a gross weight of 16.12 grams, 900 thousandths fine, for 28 millimetres, which is the format of the old 50 franc gold coins. Its 1991 mintage is 2,000 pieces, those of 1992 and 1993 are not published, and it also exists in a set with the 10 and 20 francs of the same series. The other four share a smaller format, 8.45 grams at 920 thousandths fine for 22 millimetres, the 1998 World Cup struck in 1996 to 10,000 pieces, Champollion in 1998 to 3,000, the French Stamp in 1999 to 1,000 and Yves Saint-Laurent in 2000 to 1,096.
They carry a face value of fifty francs without ever having been designed for everyday use, and the reason is in the metal, not in the price list. A format of 8.45 grams at 920 thousandths fine already contained, when it was issued, several hundred francs of gold for a face value of fifty.
If you have inherited a fifty franc coin found in a drawer, it is very probably not one of these. The whole family comes to around seventeen thousand published pieces, when the silver Hercule alone runs into tens of millions.
Outside that count are the essais and the piedforts, which we come to below, as well as the 50 francs struck for the overseas territories, which belong to other currencies and to another subject.
The 50 franc Guiraud, 1950 to 1958
Often confused with the others because it carries the same face value, it has nothing in common with them, it is struck in aluminium bronze and contains no precious metal. It weighs 8 grams for a diameter of 27 millimetres. The 1950 to 1958 range also hides a gap, no circulation strike is catalogued for 1955, 1956 and 1957.
Its value depends on the date rather than on the grade. Beware of one criterion that is often given and does not work, colour. The Guiraud is yellow, but so are the 50 francs in gold. What separates them is felt in the hand, a gold coin of 28 millimetres weighs 16.13 grams, a Guiraud of 27 millimetres weighs 8. If your coin is yellow and feels light for its size, it is the Guiraud.
Which one is really the most valuable
The short answer is gold, and the Génie ahead of the Napoléon III. But it deserves qualifying, because rarity and price are not always the same thing.
On mintage, the ranking is beyond argument among the period strikes. One hundred pieces for the Génie 1889, two hundred for the 1900, three hundred and one for the 1887. No Napoléon III date goes below about one thousand eight hundred coins, and the silver Hercule runs into millions, four to twelve a year between 1974 and 1979, with 1980 as the only exception.
Modern collector coins are an exception to this reasoning, and that matters if you own one. Their mintages, from one thousand to ten thousand pieces, are of the same order as the scarcest dates among the period strikes, but a low mintage does not create for them the premium of a period strike. They trade close to their gold content. In November 2023, at Heritage, a French Stamp and an Yves Saint-Laurent, both graded PR69 Ultra Cameo, which is a near perfect state, sold for 575 and 471 euros including buyer’s premium. At the gold price of that day, their 8.45 gram format at 920 thousandths fine was worth about 460 euros for the metal alone. The first therefore made a quarter more than its gold, the second merely matched it, whereas a period strike with a mintage of one thousand, on a format twice as heavy, sells for several thousand euros. The rarity of a coin only counts if the market is looking for it.
On market price, things are less clear cut, because a coin that rare changes hands seldom and its value depends enormously on its grade. Among the Napoléon III, the highest indicative values recorded on Numista at the end of September 2026 go to the 1858 from Paris, up to 3,900 euros, and to the 1862 from Paris, up to 3,500 euros. Among the published sale results, a Paris 1862 graded PCGS MS64+ sold for six thousand dollars, in the order of five thousand five hundred euros including buyer’s premium, at Heritage in November 2023. That is not a record, it is one reference point among others.
Above all of this sit the essais and the piedforts, which we come to below. Their mintages are anything but uniform, from twenty to fifty pieces per date for the platinum piedfort and from one hundred to five hundred for the gold piedfort, but from six hundred to two thousand seven hundred and fifty for the silver piedfort, and thirteen thousand eight hundred for the 1974 essai.
Finally, the comparison between gold and silver is first of all arithmetic. A 50 franc Hercule weighs 30 grams at 900 thousandths fine, a 50 franc gold coin 16.13 grams at the same fineness. With a gram of gold worth something like seventy times a gram of silver in the autumn of 2026, and with that ratio moving over time, the metal value alone of the gold coin crushes that of the silver coin before collecting is even mentioned.
The rare 50 franc Hercule, it all comes down to the date
On a series struck to more than 46 million pieces, rarity is not a matter of chance. The table below gives the catalogued mintages year by year, with the share included in Fleur de coin sets.
| Date | Total mintage | Of which in Fleur de coin sets |
|---|---|---|
| 1974 | 4,298,811 | 98,800 |
| 1975 | 4,552,011 | 52,000 |
| 1976 | 5,544,711 | 35,700 |
| 1977 | 7,884,011 | 25,000 |
| 1978 | 12,030,211 | 24,000 |
| 1979 | 12,040,511 | 40,500 |
| 1980 | 60,000 | 60,000 |
The reading is unambiguous. The 1980 date was struck two hundred times less than 1979, and never for circulation, as all sixty thousand coins came out in sets. It is the only real rarity among the circulation strikes of the series, and the only one that justifies a significant premium over the silver weight.
Behind it, on the other hand, the gap in mintage does not turn into a gap in price. The 1974 and 1975 dates, with 4.3 and 4.55 million coins, are nearly three times fewer than 1978 and 1979, which both exceed twelve million, and yet they do not sell for more. On the indicative valuations published by Numista, the six circulation dates sit within a few euros of each other. On a mintage counted in millions, the year does not make the price. What makes it is the gross weight of 30 grams at 900 thousandths fine and the silver price of the day, then the state of preservation and the presence of the original set.
One precaution is needed on 1980 coins offered for sale. As they exist only in sets, a single coin presented as such necessarily comes from an opened set. That is not disqualifying, but the grade must be beyond reproach and the provenance verifiable, failing which the premium disappears.
How to value a 50 franc Hercule silver coin
Value is built in two stages, and it is this method that is worth remembering rather than a price, which moves every day with the market.
First stage, the metal value. It is the floor. You start from the gross weight of 30 grams and the fineness of 900 thousandths, and you apply the silver price per gram of the day. It is a calculation you can do yourself in a few seconds, and no serious offer should go below that amount.
Second stage, the numismatic premium. It is added to the metal value and depends on three things, the date, the state of preservation and the presence of the original set. For a common date in circulated condition it is close to zero and the coin trades near its metal content. It becomes significant on the 1980 date, on Fleur de coin and proof qualities, and on complete sets of all seven years.
In other words, the question of what a 50 franc Hercule is worth has only one wrong answer, a single figure. To follow the price of the day, see our gold and silver price page. Our price of the day is shown on the 50 Francs Hercule silver product page. The same reasoning applies to the 10 Francs Hercule, smaller and carrying less metal, and to the 100 Francs silver.
Essais, piedforts and special strikes
This is where the genuinely expensive coins are, and it is the part most online comparisons leave out.
Alongside its circulation strikes, the Monnaie de Paris produces pieces intended for its archives, for collectors and for technical trials. Two categories come up on the 50 franc Hercule. The essai, struck before or at the launch of the series, and the piedfort, struck on a blank markedly thicker than the circulation one, and therefore much heavier, in a proportion that depends on the metal. The silver piedfort has a gross weight of 60 grams where the circulation coin weighs 30. The gold piedfort at 920 thousandths fine reaches a little over 102 grams, and the platinum one at 999 thousandths fine 122.63 grams, gold and platinum being denser than silver for an equal volume.
One point of vocabulary matters when reading a listing. The piedfort and the essai are two different objects, and the 50 franc Hercule exists in both forms in gold. The gold piedfort, dated 1974 to 1980, has a gross weight of 102 grams at 920 thousandths fine for 41 millimetres. The gold essai, dated 1974, has a gross weight of 51 grams at 900 thousandths fine for the same diameter, it carries the word ESSAI engraved on the Hercules side and was struck to only five pieces, a prestige striking intended for dignitaries. A listing offering a gold essai of the 50 franc Hercule is therefore not necessarily the sign of an ill informed seller.
Finally, a general principle worth keeping in mind. The absence of a date from a mintage table never means that no coin bearing that date exists. Essais and special strikes have their own catalogue references and do not appear in the columns of circulation mintages.
Buying a 50 franc gold coin
If it is the gold family that interests you, our catalogue carries the 50 Francs Napoléon laureate head gold and the 50 Francs Napoléon bare head gold, as well as the 100 Francs Napoléon bare head gold for anyone looking for a heavier format. Our prices follow the market continuously and are shown on each product page. To understand how the price per gram is built, see our article on the price of gold per gram.
Frequently asked questions
Which 50 franc coin is the most valuable?
A gold coin, and more precisely the 50 franc Génie gold coin of the Third Republic, some Paris dates of which were struck to only one hundred pieces in 1889, two hundred in 1900 and three hundred and one in 1887. Next come the 50 franc gold coins of Napoléon III, whose lowest date is the laureate head 1868 from Strasbourg, at around one thousand eight hundred coins. Above them again sit the essais and the piedforts. Among the 50 francs in silver, the most sought after circulation strike is the 1980 Hercule.
Which year of the 50 franc Hercule is the rarest?
The 1980 date, with sixty thousand pieces struck for Fleur de coin sets only, against more than twelve million in 1979. The other circulation dates, from 1974 to 1979, sit within a few euros of each other and the year makes practically no difference to the price.
How much does a 50 franc Hercule coin weigh?
It has a gross weight of 30 grams and is 900 thousandths fine. Its diameter is 41 millimetres and its thickness 2.70 millimetres.
How do you tell a 50 franc Génie gold coin from a 50 franc Napoléon III gold coin?
Not by the edge, contrary to what is often written. The Génie and the Napoléon III laureate head both carry a raised edge inscription reading DIEU PROTEGE LA FRANCE, and they share the same gross weight of 16.13 grams, the same fineness of 900 thousandths and the same diameter of 28 millimetres. The edge only separates the Génie from the bare head of 1855 to 1860, whose reference listing carries no edge inscription. What settles it for certain are the designs, the legend and the date, the winged Genius of the Republic and RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE on one side, the effigy of Napoléon III and EMPIRE FRANCAIS on the other, with dates that never overlap, 1855 to 1868 for the Napoléon III and 1878 to 1904 for the Génie.
Is the 50 franc Hercule coin solid silver?
Yes, it is struck in silver at 900 thousandths fine, the rest of the alloy being copper. That is below the first standard used in French silverware, which is 950 thousandths, and above the second standard, which is 800 thousandths.
Can you still spend a 50 franc Hercule coin?
No, it has not been legal tender since 30 April 1980. It does, however, keep all its value as a precious metal.
