The Anglophile Louis Philippe's comparatively short reign (1830-1848) was a period of colonial expansion, including the conquest of Algeria, however, growing social inequality and a lack of enfranchisement led to a number of assassination attempts and subsequent abdication, and exile in England.
As well as Four portrait varieties, the Five Franc denomination offers a wealth of dates and mintmarks, the 1831 issue seeing 22 mints utilised.
Whilst the Paris mint remained the main source of output, Rouen, Strasbourg, and especially Lille produced annual mintages in the millions.
Amongst the more elusive mints for the 1832-1836 dates are Toulose and Narbonne, with the former producing just 72,000 coins in 1836.
Struck in .900 fine silver, the coin equated to approximately Four English Shillings or One United States Dollar, at a time when a farm labourer's weekly wage would have been in the region of 14 Shillings/$3.50/FFR17.50.
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