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what is "ESSAI" mean ?

brendanlambrendanlam Posts: 662 ✭✭✭
in World & Ancient Coins Forum
does anyone know what is mean?
I have seem it on the coins, but don't know what is so special about it.

essai in Vietnam coin
essai in Laos coin

Comments

  • coinrookiecoinrookie Posts: 794
    It means a test or trial strike.
  • satootokosatootoko Posts: 2,720 ✭
    It's French for "try".
    Roy


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  • SwampboySwampboy Posts: 13,047 ✭✭✭✭✭
    coup d'essai

    This is the listing I got in M-W online.

    Is that the way the word essai is pronounced when used numismatically? (minus the coup d')

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  • brendanlambrendanlam Posts: 662 ✭✭✭
    so what is the purpose doing that? and what different for regular coin? any speciality?
  • GDJMSPGDJMSP Posts: 799 ✭
    Think of it as a pattern coin - it's easier to understand that way.
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  • SYRACUSIANSYRACUSIAN Posts: 6,461 ✭✭✭✭
    I would agree with coinrookie. Coins with ESSAI written on them, were trial coins (usually originating from French mints ),pending for official approval to become circulation coins. Some very rare, offered in sets or individually to high dignitaries of the time.
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  • MacCrimmonMacCrimmon Posts: 7,058 ✭✭✭
    Yep, "trial" is correct, and essai is also the same French root from which English derives assay, which means 'to test'. In this case, testing that the gold/silver standard of the coin has been achieved during the minting process.
  • secondrepublicsecondrepublic Posts: 2,619 ✭✭✭
    Essai means pattern, which hopefully means your coin is worth a lot more money.
    "Men who had never shown any ability to make or increase fortunes for themselves abounded in brilliant plans for creating and increasing wealth for the country at large." Fiat Money Inflation in France, Andrew Dickson White (1912)
  • TwoKopeikiTwoKopeiki Posts: 9,739 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Another one from the French language is Piedfort (direct translation: heavy weight) - which is a coin (or a medal) struck with regular dies on a much heavier planchet (often twice the "normal" weight). Essai issues are often found struck on piedforts, as with your Viet Nam example in the different post.

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  • 7Jaguars7Jaguars Posts: 7,582 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Interestingly, the essai and piefort coins of some French colonial issues are MORE common than mint state currency bits, and there are some collections of literally 100s to 1000s accumulated here and there. Occasionally they are quite scarce but kind of have to check.

    Examples of the more scarce currency bits are the Martinique 50c and 1 Franc of 1897...
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  • worldcoinguyworldcoinguy Posts: 3,019 ✭✭✭✭
    Interesting thread - I also wondered what it meant. It seems there has been a flood of them in plastic on eBay lately.
  • brendanlambrendanlam Posts: 662 ✭✭✭
    but my concern is how can you tell it is "Piefort Essai" or just "Essai"?

    because if the coin is Essai, then it is print on the coin. how about Piefort Essai coin? there is not Piefort Essai on the coin.
  • GDJMSPGDJMSP Posts: 799 ✭
    Essai is not always printed on the coin, sometimes it is and sometimes it is not. A pierfort coin can be easily distinguished because it is struck on a planchet of double thickness and weight.
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