Vive LA Rã©volution!

Quite pleased with this one. A 5 Centime from Revolutionary France (1795-96) 23mm, 5g Copper.

The marques de différence on the reverse of the Paris Mint (cornucopia on the right) and Chief Engraver Augustin Dupré (Artemis, carrying a bow, left) are quite clear.

Yes, I know it has watermarks. It's still on it's way to me from the seller so I've had to use their image.

Thanks thq. I get your concern and admit I've not seen one with a similar die crack either. However I see they sometimes do occur, as in this example. Not entirely reassuring but gives me hope I might find a closer match:



The lettering and other details are similar to other early milled coins I've seen, though I have no experience of this particular series. I guess I shall have to wait for it to arrive and inspect it up close! I've no access to metallurgical checks, but have scales.

In the meantime if you or anyone else wants to add a view I shall be keen to hear it! It's not a terribly expensive coin, which doesn't preclude copies being made I guess, but I'd have thought if you did want to sell such things ebay rather than a European dealer would be your choice of outlet!

:s

Edit: I've posted a question on a French forum. Be interesting to see if anyone there can reassure me, or not!

I think the problem is that there are not that many examples and not all sold are illustrated on the internet, so searching for a die match will take time.

Sometimes the best we can do is compare with characteristics we know from other coins.

I got just one reply from the French forum so far, to the effect that the respondent thought the coin genuine. I believe that although diameters vary a bit the weight is consistent, so that might help. Certainly the few copies online are very crude by comparison and I see no obvious signs of casting.

Of course, it's difficult to be certain with a new area of study. But I'll let you know how I get on when I receive it!

Couple that aren't coins:



French Telephone token



American Civil War Token (Fuld 11-298a)

and most recently



French advertising token for an aperitif. Gilded brass.

Hey thq, we had the minitel before you had the internet ;)
As well as the phone card, replacing those tokens (I used to collect them, I even had a test card from Bull for when they were developing those)

And we have better prices now on mobile and internet (I have a 2h+200mb sim for free, 2Gb + unlimited call including world to manu countries - us included - for 15 euros ..., uncapped 20mb/1mb internet + tv + unlimited call for 35€ ) :P
Looks like the trial leading to the baby bell was not enough ...

In any case, vive le iPhone ! It opened a whole new world for telephony (and as for macs VS PCs, Android is coming back fast)

LOL Thanks Christian. I bought the PTT token as an example of Bazor's work, as it was a gap and it seems better detailed than the designs on coins.

I do wonder about the Perrier jeton. The design is similar to Eugene Oudine's work for some coins of Argentina, but there's no signature, so I guess it's just a copy of the style. Kina Perrier also did a similar jeton with a 'Dupre' style bust .. I presume there were no copyright laws in those days!

As for iPhones, I've yet to go beyond a phone that you just use for calls and texts. Quelle horreur! Though at least you don't need jetons or coins to make it work!