FRANCE, GOLD ESSAI 50 FRANCS, 5th Republic, Paris, 1974, 6h. KM E118. Of the highest rarity, only 5 specimens struck. None on CoinArchives. PCGS SP67. Former Georges Mathieu (1921-2012) collection The overall design was based on an 1795 original design from the famous Augustin Dupré. The obverse features Hercules, long a symbol in art of strength, courage and endurance, was the ideal personification of Fraternity. Wearing the skin of the Nemean lion which, in the legend of the twelve labours, granted him the gift of invulnerability, he is flanked on either side by the allegorical figures in female form of Liberty and Equality on whose shoulders he rests his hands in a fraternal embrace. This message of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, first portrayed over two hundred years ago against the bloody backdrop of the French Revolution, reminds us of the suffering and determination experienced by ordinary people to achieve the democracies of the western world which we now take for granted.