The Leconte Prize was established with a donation from a businessman, Victor Eugene Leconte, to the academy. The donation specified that a F50,000 prize would be awarded every three years for outstanding past work, and that up to 1/8th of the interest earned by the fund each year could be awarded as encouragements, i.e., support for ongoing and future research. The academy did not award any large (F50,000) prizes between 1905 and 1916, but did award a total of F30,000 in encouragements during that period.