Hello:
I'm a collector of French coins and have become somewhat of an aficionado on values by watching a ton of the action on
ebay and by shopping French coins in all kinds of places, from shows to brick-and-mortar shops in several states and online sources.
According to the Franc VII, MS 65 would give you a book value of 35 euros (abt 49 USD). If you're certain of the following two things, you could expect to get a bit MORE than that by having it slabbed (preferably by PCGS): 1) that there are no hairlines from wiping or haze (under a 10x loupe; these are what the TPGs use to put moderns in the 64, 65 range, IMHO) 2) that it will come back MS66 or above. With a 64 or 65 it would not be worth it, in higher grades it would.
Factors: On the plus side, 1973 has the lowest mintage numbers in the series, of 200k. That makes it the only key and quite desirable in high grades. So far, FEW of the 10FF and 50FF crowns from the 60s and 70s have been slabbed. This means that with the very real, increasing interest in buying slabbed coins slabbing these is not a bad idea. Recently a 1966 MS-64 NGC got over $35 on
ebay, despite a cat val a good bit lower (and a mintage of over 9 million!). I would not be too surprised to see a 1973 PCGS MS-67 or MS-68 get close to the $100 mark, and maybe break it. I think US dealers tend to think of this coin type as merely a bullion coin, but there is a very strong market for top grades.
Conversely, the 1973 FDC sets are fairly plentiful and affordable, and the 10FF crown in these sets was on average very well struck, giving the mirror-like fields showing here on your coin. As the last year of the type, likely nearly all of its mintage went unused into collections--my book reports that the French were avid stock-pilers of all the silver coinage of the 60s and 70s, leading to an abundance of high grades on the coin market to this day, despite melts and the massive return of franc coinage earlier in this decade with the switch to the euro.
Note too that the pieforts are double-thick coins, so it would be pretty obvious if this were one--I can't tell from the photo, would need a side-on shot. Though I think I've never seen a piefort of this date or type, if it were one I'd say slab it NOW, as it would be very valuable. No 'essais' were minted for this date, only 1964, and those are as always hundreds of dollars...
Let us know what you do and, if you do slab it, what they give it!
Best,
SeriousCERES
Posted 06/05/2009 1:23 pm
