Martin, beg to differ.

Palms, ranging from one to five after Acier Hercule indicate the quality of the steel
used to make the barrels, they are not indicators of pressure proof.

Unfortunately the proofmark looks a lot like the palms, but in reality it is more like
two crossed feathers with a crown in the middle and three dots followed by "St.-Etienne".
Easy to confuse.

Of course the more the palms the better and sturdier the barrels.

Here you can see the proofmark for "épreuve supérieure des armes finies",
the arrows through the circles followed by the Poudre used "T" and the designated

quality of three palms for the acier Hercule used.


As you can see the palms are not the same as the proofmarks. No crown, no dots.
JC

"...it is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance." Charles Darwin