France 1792-D 30 sols

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Stack's Bowers September 2025 Collectors Choice sale, lot 71060
SB925-71060r.jpg

This specimen was lot 71060 in Stack's Bowers Collectors Choice sale (Costa Mesa, CA, September 2025), where it sold for $384. The catalog description[1] noted, "FRANCE. Constitution. 30 Sols, 1792-D/Year 4. Lyon Mint. Louis XVI. PCGS AU-58. Second semester. A lofty and fairly lustrous specimen, this lightly toned example stands as the only such representative of the type in the PCGS census. From the Richard Margolis Collection (acquired from Émile Bourgey in Paris on 23 October 1962 for $1)." Altho the French Revolution famously began with the fall of the Bastille in June 1789, the upheaval was not immediately reflected in the coinage, which continued to be issued using the designs of the ancien régime. In 1791, the first "constitutional" coins appeared, including 3 deniers (= 1 liard), 6 deniers (= 2 liards), 12 deniers (= 1 sol), 2 sols, 15 sols (= 1/8 écu) and 30 sols. "Constitutional" half écus and écus appeared in 1792. Only then were the old royal designs discontinued. In 1793, the king was guillotined and a republic instituted. The republicans issued some brass sols and 2 sols and a silver écu de 6 livres before abandoning the system altogether in favor of the franc in 1795.

Recorded mintage: unknown, a better date.

Specification: 10 g, 0.666 fine silver, 28-29.5 mm diameter. Engraved by Augustin Dupré.

Catalog reference: KM-606.5; Gad-39.

Source:

  • Duplessy, Jean, Les Monnaies Françaises Royales de Hugues Capet à Louis XVI (987-1793), Tome II, 2e édition, Paris: Maison Platt, 1999.
  • Gadoury, Victor, Monnaies Françaises, 1789-2019, 24me éd., Monaco: Éditions Victor Gadoury, 2019.
  • Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
  • [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, September 2025 World Collectors Choice Online Auction, including Selections from the Richard Margolis Collection and Selections from the L.E. Bruun Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2025.

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