France & French Colonies - Essais and Piedforts

Dennis88

Anybody has more info/pictures of these? Were they sold just to collectors via the Mint? I also noticed that lot of these have a mintage listed in Krause of exactly 104 pieces. Is that for any particular reason? Seems like a somewhat odd number...

Dennis

ormandh

Sorry that I can't help, but I would definitely wished that I knew what you have!

pruebas

I can't answer your questions, but I spoke with Mr. Gadoury at the NYINC last month and he informed me that they are finally publishing (in 2013) an updated edition of the French coin catalog that includes essais. The last edition with essais was in 1989! That edition is now on clearance on the Gadoury website in case you are interested.

I bet the ANA or the ANS have copies in their respective libraries.

LochNESS

Are you interested in France Afrique? Or other colonies (like North America continent)? My understanding is that France struck essai patterns for government officials, who would vote and approve the designs for mintage. Of course they were not the only country to do this, but perhaps the mintage you're looking at (104) could be explained by the number of parliament, governance, etc. I have not heard a reasonable explanation for piedforts, to me that just seems like a waste of metal unless it's a modern BV "collectible."

I'll upload some photos of mine soon...

LochNESS

I know this photo sucks, but I'm in a hurry... 1973 1/2 Fr KM-P474 SP68 mintage 150:


This is from West African States, they just screwed up the label:


French Equatorial Africa, PCGS SP65

PBRat

I like these coins ... attractive designs, lots of variety, and low mintage. Here's a few from the French African colonies ...

1966 Cameroon 100 Francs Essai, mintage = 1200


1971 Cameroon 100 Francs Essai, mintage = 1550


1972 Cameroon 100 Francs Essai, mintage = 1550


1975 Cameroon 100 Francs Essai, mintage = 1700


1978 Central African Republic 100 Francs Essai, mintage = 1900


1975 Chad 100 Francs Essai, mintage = 1700


1985 Equatorial Guinea 100 Francos Essai, mintage = ?


1975 Gabon 100 Francs Essai, mintage = 1700


Ok, I'll stop

Dennis88

Here's one I have on eBay right now...Silver piedfort, mintage of 350 pieces. PCGS PR67DCAM. I'm not that keen on selling it yet so I just put it up for a pretty big premium over Krause and see what happens:



I really like to get a small collection of the essai pieces, but you just can't find them. Some of the same surprisingly affordable. I guess there are not many collectors of Djibouti essais and stuff like that....

Dennis

PBRat

I guess there are not many collectors of Djibouti essais

There's at least one collector with a few of these ...

1977 Djibouti Franc Essai, mintage = 1700


1977 Djibouti 5 Francs Essai, mintage = 1700


1977 Djibouti 20 Francs Essai, mintage = 1700


1977 Djibouti 100 Francs Essai, mintage = 1700

LochNESS

Nice one, Dennis. If I was into piedforts I'd make an offer. Well in reply to F.Polynesia (same grade in business strike):



and in reply to <<<I really like to get a small collection of the essai pieces>>> I've found many essai on eBay raw, and had slabbed myself, but even slabs appear on occasion. Here's a collection of Françafrique that I'm working on:

LochNESS

oh, I almost forgot about this one... KM-E5, SP65RD ... an example of one I got raw on eBay:

Dennis88

Very nice coins everyone. I came across this set on eBay, I guess this is how the issues from the 1940s might have been distributed. They include a number of different colonies:

Link