Info on French coins counterstamped "1914"?

spoon

Those of you who may have stumbled upon my wantlist (see sigline) probably realize that I'm a nut for 1914 dated material.. well, maybe not a nut, but that's the type set that's finally brought focus to my erratic collecting habits.

So far I've been hesitant to do more than dabble in other WWI related numismatic items. But there is one piece that has peaked my curiosity, and now I finally have an example of my own. Any info, or even wild-but-educated speculation, on it's origins would be greatly appreciated!

I know nothing about these. I have seen a couple for sale online, so I'm guessing they're not terribly scarce. So far as I recall all were on 5 centimes, but I could be wrong on that. This one is on a 1912 5 centime. I have also seen 10 centimes counterstamped for WWI POW camps in a similarly crude fashion.



Apologies for the poor pic, I'm still without a camera!

lordmarcovan

I've never heard of or seen such a counterstamp. Interesting.

MSD61

Somewhere I remember seeing a Tunisia 1914A 10 centimes counterstamped 1914 and I am wondering if these types of coins, like yours, could
have been emergency coinage similar to the German Notgeld? Seeing that other European countries experienced the same economic hardships
during this time would not France also gather up coinage from more productive years and counterstamp these coins with valid usage dates to
make up the shortages of coinage during the war years? Just my stab at it.

spoon

That's kinda the theory I'm leaning toward. Emergency notes and coinage were already springing up in 1914. But then, I still need to track down who/which locality stamped these.

My wild theory is that it might have been satirical or patriotic. After Louie Napoleon's defeat at Sedan satirical pieces were wildly popular. There were actual struck pieces, hobo-style carvings and counterstamps. Perhaps this could be a call to arms, "remember 1914" or rubbing in the quick initial defeats? I dunno. The notgeld theory sounds more plausible.

spoon

I should add, I actually have an early reference on French notgeld from the war years: Catologue Illustre des Monnaies Francaises de la Guerre, 1914-1919, by Louis Ciani. It's undated but was published sometime around 1920. Unfortunately, I don't see anything like this coin in it.

MSD61

Back to that Tunisia 1914A 10 centimes counterstamped 1914 I remember it being described as trench art done by a bored soldier because the 1914 counterstamp was so poorly done. But I don't think your's is the case as the counterstamp looks to be done with punches and not scratched into the coin with a trench knife or bayonet. Still a very interesting piece.