France – 5 francs 1941 / 22 mm – / UNC / From the original planned mintage of 200,000,000; only 13,782,000 pieces were minted as the German occupational authorities wanted to reserve the nickel used by Monnaie de Paris for the war efforts and as such the coin was not needed considering the banknotes of the same value was already in circulation. The coins were stockpiled in the storehouse of Monnaie de Paris located in Castellsarrasin for three years without never being released for circulation. The whole mintage was moved to Germany to be melted down in order to reuse the nickel but the boat transporting the coins on the Sambre River in Belgium was sunk by an Allied bombardment. It is reported that only 50,000 pieces were saved from the river. // UNC // Copper-nickel // KM#901 // 4,09 gram //