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 Replies: 7 / Views: 1,185 |
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Valued Member
United States
105 Posts |
I have this coin I am trying to figure out what it is. It is bronze colored, about the size as a half dollar and extremely thick and heavy. It has a man's head on the front and what appears to be a circular leaf pattern on the back. It has a criss-cross or lattice pattern on the side of it. It is as thick as 2 stacked quarters. Any ideas or thoughts?  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3253 Posts |
Welcome! That legend is REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE, so the "man" is actually a lady: Marianne, the French personification of liberty and reason. Looks like the image of Marianne from the bronze coinage of the First Republic; the one décime coin of that period was 32 mm, and a Kennedy half dollar is just over 30. Does it have any lettering inside the wreath on the other side? Edited by philadelphian
05/07/2013 11:16 pm
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Valued Member
 United States
105 Posts |
It is badly worn. I can't tell if there is any lettering or not.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3253 Posts |
Put up a pic anyway; you'd be surprised. We might be able to tell the denomination, the mint, and (with luck) even the date. The revolutionaries of the First Republic created a new dating system, numbering the years starting with the Revolution as Year One!
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Valued Member
United States
105 Posts |
OK here goes. both the back and the side of the coin.   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3253 Posts |
Ok, definitely the oakleaf wreath of the first coins of the French Republic. Enough leaf pattern remains to say the top of the coin is about 1 o'clock in your pic. The longest word in the center of this coin should then run from the upper left to lower right, just above the center point of the coin. That word must be either centimes, décime, or décimes, and I think we can see the first letter at 10-11 o'clock, and the ghost of the word running down and right from there.
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Valued Member
United States
105 Posts |
Is there any way I can clean it without damage to make it clearer?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3253 Posts |
I think I'm seeing something like this:  I don't think that first letter is a D, but I'm not sure if the 5 centimes coins, even the later, larger ones, would be as large as yours. The three denominations were 5 centimes, 1 décime, and 2 décimes. They were produced from about 1795-1801. |
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Replies: 7 / Views: 1,185 |
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Posted 05/08/2013 08:33 am
