A Sower for brg5658

JCMhouston

For helping out dating these slabs I thought I would show this one, a Sower in an old holder.



1914 1 Franc, NGC 67







Here's a professionally imaged shot of it.

Jackthecat1

I love these coins. Thanks for posting this one.

Iosephus

Very attractive!

PatAR

Beautiful!

coinkat

terrific coin

brg5658

Really beautiful example. I'll PM you my shipping address.

STLNATS

Very nice example indeed of a great design. Congrats!



This type was minted in some quantity throughout WWI and I've always wondered if they circulated much or if they disappeared into savings hoards. I'm aware of the French equivalent of notgeld so there must have been some shortage of coins and by 1918 the franc had dropped in value. Anyone have any insight to this?

Zohar

Love that design and coin type that seems to tone very nicely.

JCMhouston

Stilnats, I don't know all the details, but by the end of WW I France, like most of Europe, was near bankrupt. They left the Latin Monetary Union and when the 20 Franc gold pieces came back they were no longer gold, instead I think they were a copper nickel composition, or some equally low cost alloy. At the same time it seems like all the silver coins were changed over to a low cost alloy also.



Here's an article Linky

Jackthecat1

France stopped minting silver 1/2, 1, and 2 Francs in 1920. The UK reduced the fineness of their silver coinage from .925 to .500 in the same year. Germany was going through the throes of hyper-inflation at the same time. War is Hell.

STLNATS

Originally posted by: JCMhouston

Stilnats, I don't know all the details, but by the end of WW I France, like most of Europe, was near bankrupt. They left the Latin Monetary Union and when the 20 Franc gold pieces came back they were no longer gold, instead I think they were a copper nickel composition, or some equally low cost alloy. At the same time it seems like all the silver coins were changed over to a low cost alloy also.

Thanks.



While not nearly as nice as your blazer, I've seen a lot of these late year coins in unc or very gently circulated and still wonder if they really circulated much during the war. Certainly after the war these were replaced by the brass Commerce and Industry coinage since France's economy was in shambles. But during the war itself I gotta believe they were increasingly being hoarded (perhaps along with the 1/2 and 1 marks in Germany). Really haven't seen much of anything to support my assumption tho.



edited to add: It finally dawned on me to do a search and found this chart online. It shows that the real drop happened in 1919 which pretty much blows away my assumption. So never mind...