Does anyone collect these French commemorative 10 Francs?

laurentyvan

French 10 Franc commemorative series in Nickel/Brass and Alum/Bronze that ran roughly from 1982 to 1987.

Very classic engravings, as demonstrated by this absolutely classic Marianne 'o war.




And they're generally inexpensive to acquire, just a few dollars.

There's got to be other commem. series with classic images from a variety of countries that are equally inexpensive. Anyone want to post some images?

SYRACUSIAN

Hey Laurent, have you bought any coin recently, or are you selling off pretty much everything?

Maybe switching to a different direction?

laurentyvan

are you selling off pretty much everything?

Well, I don't know- I've only sold off approx. 60 pieces out of more than 1200. I'm having as much fun selling as I had collecting.

SYRACUSIAN

I'm having as much fun selling as I had collecting.




Why is that do you think? Profit? Getting rid of unwanted coins?


I personally cannot imagine selling without reinvesting every single cent in the hobby asap. I also cannot imaging buying only, because you only know what the real value of your coins are when you sell them. What we've paid for them is a different story, often coins that we consider rare are not and vice versa. To most, selling comes as a bad surprise,at least in the beginning. But the biggest advantage of combined buying/selling IMO,is that you get to handle so many more coins than passive buyers. I understand that my opinion is not shared by several members of this board and I respect that.

On the other hand, I would never think of selling only, unless I wanted to abandon the hobby for good, because I'm not a coin dealer, it's not a means for a living for me, but a hobby in my spare time, and most of all, I have not invested the time, effort,and money that real dealers have, I lack the deeper knowledge for this and it would be like stealing their job and income. Sort of how I feel about some self appointed "decorators" that wake up one day and decide that they were born to practice this, but without the necessary studies ,University background and experience for it and practically always with disastrous results.

I'd be very interested to hear your views on this, because I'm also aware about your big interest and vast knowledge in books.

laurentyvan

Syracusian, for several years I bought steadily to the limits of my budget and sometimes beyond.

Over 350 countries spanning 3 centuries and in certain cases much older. What a blast! What an education!

What a help this forum was during that time. Virtually everything I learned in a practical sense was at the knee of expert forum members and by buying the right references.

Over time I've become aware of a need to specialize and improve the quality of coins I buy. As a result I've decided to sell my current collection and start over, using the knowledge I gained the first time around to do it better the second time. In the future I will be buying strictly French coins with certain isolated exceptions.

eBay seemed to be the logical way to attempt to recover what I have in my coins. I have to say I'm pleased with the results so far. It also dovetails well with my selling books on eBay (of which I have 1000's, accumulated over 4 decades).

Zoins

Laurent,

Thanks for posting this coin. I've never seen this before and am not familiar with the series. This coin seems to commemorate the birth of Francois Rude and depict his La Marseillaise sculpture on the Arc de Triomphe. Are the other coins in this series also for Francois Rude, for other French sculptors/sculptures or is there another theme? How many coins are there in total and what diameter(s) are they?

SYRACUSIAN

Laurent, thank you for a very informative and honest reply, it was pretty much what I had expected.

Also, I've reread my second post and I sincerely apologize if I sounded slightly hostile, it was certainly not my intention. I was simply curious after seeing a certain number of recent posts of yours, dedicated to selling alone, without any that involved a new purchase in between. You've chosen a path that many of us have, also under the influence of this forum and I wish you all the best in your experiment.

Ebay and the internet in general have been of great help to collectors, in the sense that we can resell coins that we no longer want, without being at the mercy of dealers who would only pay fifty ,sixty percent of their original buyprice, or of their current market value if it was an old purchase.I have first hand experience of this, when I sold my first collection in the early 90s.

Finally ,I apologize for hijacking this thread, but I just needed to know. At least zoins, did his best to reorientate it in its proper direction.

laurentyvan

Glad you're interested Zoins.

25mm, only about a half dozen in this particular series, celebrating a variety of famous Frenchmen and their historical achievements. I liked their look and the quality of the engravings. Ten franc coins in general make a fascinating series to collect because of their diversity (and there's lots of them).

Here's another: Léon Gambetta (April 2, 1838, Cahors - December 31, 1882, Paris) was a French statesman prominent after the Franco-Prussian War.

Zoins

Thanks for the follow up Laurent. This seems like an interesting series to pick up and learn about French history at the same time. I'll have to keep an eye out for these.