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French Chamber of Commerce coins

gscoinsgscoins Posts: 285 ✭✭✭
in World & Ancient Coins Forum

I just added a 1923 French Chamber of Commerce 50 centime coin to my Modern French type set and thought I'd see what discussion threads there were regarding this series.

Previous postings over the years here have noted that these aluminum-bronze coins, issued during the 1920's in 50 centimes, 1 and 2 francs, were not "official" French government issues, but rather substitutes for the 0.835 silver coins that could no longer be minted by the government due to the depleted condition of the French economy. Some of the earlier posts have stated that then-existing French law required those three denominations had to be in silver and that the French government was hoping for sufficient German post-war reparations to enable it to begin minting the silver coins again.

However, inflation during the post-war period meant that these three coins were not minted in silver. The French franc went from roughly 5-6 per USD in 1914-19 to 25 per dollar by 1929. 1927 was the last year for the 1 and 2 francs CoC issues, and 1929 for the 50 centimes. In 1931, the French government began minting official French coins again, using the exact same specifications as the preceding CoC coins. I assume that the previous legal obligation to mint them in silver was repealed.

Anybody on the board sufficiently knowledgeable to confirm and correct any of the preceding? Or, add to it?

Thanks.

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    JBKJBK Posts: 14,749 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Can't add anything, but I have a few of these. I always liked them.

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    lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,198 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @JBK said:
    Can't add anything, but I have a few of these. I always liked them.

    Ditto


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    ElmhurstElmhurst Posts: 775 ✭✭✭

    Thanks for the information, never quite understood these

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    BjornBjorn Posts: 529 ✭✭✭

    Most of that is correct to my understanding. In 1929 the French did introduce silver coins, but in .680 fineness and in the larger 10 and 20 francs denominations (which prior to World War I were gold denominations) - even at 25 francs to the dollar, the 20 francs coin had less silver than 80 cents in US silver coinage. You are right that the 50, 1, 2 and 5 'government issue' francs coins didn't get reissued until the 1930s - I believe 1931 for the first three, and 1933 for the last. The other former Latin Monetary countries also issued new silver coins in the late 1920s onward, but the fineness and ASW no longer matched between similar denomination of each member. For instance, Italy issued a 5, 10 and 20 lire in silver, but all were in .835 fineness, and the 10 and 20 lire had more silver than the French 10 and 20 franc coins.

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