French Revolution Coin - Questions On Date

This is indeed an interesting coin in view of the French Revolution: the Bastille has fallen into the hands of the people in 1789. The king remained Head of State, but as a constitutional king. He didn't rule "by the grace of God" anymore.
This is also very visible on the coin itself: the fasces and the Phrygian cap are symbols of the revolution.Around this symbols are the words: La Nation, La Loi, Le Roi (the Nation, the Law, the King), putting the king as a subject of the Nation and the Law, not as an owner of the Nation, or an imposer of Law anymore. In the same way the legends say: Louis XVI, Roi des Français (Louis XVI, king of the French) as a kind of first citizen. Before the revolution you could find on the coins: Louis XVI, by the grace of God, king of France and Navarra, as if ha was the owner of the kingdom.

Also, the date is put twice: following the Gregorian calender, but also following the new Revolutionary calender, where the year 1789 was set as year 1 of liberty.

Your particular coin was minted in Strasbourg (BB mintmark). The mintmark isn't clear on the picture, but Strasbourg was the only mint using the word (Roi des) FRANçAIS instead of (Roi des) FRANçOIS. This coin has been minted with dates:
-1792 / L'An 4 de la liberte
-1793 / L'An 4 de la liberte
-1793 / L'An 5 de la liberte
(note: year 1 of the French revolutionary calender started on Sept.22 1789 and ended on Sept. 21 1790. Thats the reason you can have 2 different years- 1792 and 1793- as year 4 of liberty)

As echizento already stated: the nominal value is of 2 sols.
King Louis XVI was beheaded on Jan.21 1793 and not in 1792.

G'day,
Jenny, great start to a "French Collection".
Bart, I commend your summary.
Coins with the portrait of the King, and date 1793 seem to me to be the most poignant, given that they represent a 21-day overlap.
Peter in Oz

Wow, thanks for all the information! Good to see our ideas about the coin's imagery were correct. I had actually thought the date might have been 1792 but wasn't sure if they would still be minting coins with the king on them at that point. Very interesting historically.

Couple more questions: Is this a rare coin today? What would be an approximate price? Are coins from the French revolution hard to find in general? I know this would depend on where you are, but I'm wondering if there were lots minted in the first place, and if it's likely that many would have survived or would have been melted down.

Thanks again for all the help

The revolutionary coins are not that hard to find in worn condition, but are rare in higher grades. I think this is because they were not demonetized and continued to circulate for 40-50 years due to a scarcity of small change in France. 2 sols had a value of 2 decimes in the decimal system, for instance. You can find plenty on cgb.fr, or ebay (.com or .fr).

You might also like the decimal post-revolutionary coinage. Most are by Dupre. One of his designs was also the inspiration for the early US Liberty Cap coins.