French Revolution Bronze From The Pocket

Per your request Archraz, here are some recently acquired "sol aux balances" from 1793-94. The big one is a 2 sols, the rest are 1 sol. All except one are from US ebay.









These are not high grade examples, so I don't feel bad carrying them in my pocket. After the Revolutionary period copper coinage was scarce, and these coins circulated freely for at least 50 years afterwards. Only one has a partially readable inscription on the tablet ("les hommes sont egaux devant la loi", or translated "men are equal before the law"). The only reference I have on these is a 1977 Gadoury, which does not include mintages. If anyone has a better, more up-to-date reference than this let me know. The rarer ones here are the 1793L (Bayonne), 1793T (Nantes) and 1794AA (Metz - identifiable as 1794 by not having a numeric date).

This was a rough time to make coins. Weights vary by at least 10% from coin to coin. As you can see from the colors, they range from reddish copper to gray bell metal, with all shades in between. Because of the wear the all-seeing eye above the tablet is not visible in all its scary glory, but the stark emptiness of the blank tablets is scary enough.