Marianne wearing a Phrygian cap, left, surrounded by the country name, engraver's name on the middle left.

Marianne is a national symbol of the French Republic, an allegory of liberty and reason, and a portrayal of the Goddess of Liberty. It is a significant republican symbol, opposed to monarchy, and an icon of freedom and democracy against all forms of dictatorship.

The Phrygian cap is a soft conical cap with the top pulled forward, associated in antiquity with several peoples in Eastern Europe and Anatolia, including Phrygia, Dacia, and the Balkans. In early modern Europe it came to signify freedom and the pursuit of liberty through a confusion with the pileus, the felt cap of manumitted (emancipated) slaves of ancient Rome. Accordingly, the Phrygian cap sometimes is called a liberty cap.

Cornucopias flank denomination and date. The national motto of France (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) above.

Date surrounded by the mintmark of the Paris Mint (Cornucopia) on the left and privy mark of Chief Engraver (wing, Lucien Georges Bazor, 1931-1958 or owl, Raymond Joly, 1958-1974)

Mintmark (B or C) below the date.