France 1793-N 12 deniers

Stack's Bowers June 2026 World Premier Collectors Choice Auction, lot 71074

This specimen was lot 71074 in Stack's Bowers June 2026 World Premier Collectors Choice Auction (Costa Mesa, CA, June 2026), where it sold for $69. The catalog description^[1] noted, "FRANCE. Constitution. 12 Deniers, Year 5/1793-N. Montpellier Mint. Louis XVI. PCGS FINE-12. A rather heavily circulated example struck upon a somewhat irregular planchet. Despite these aspects, Margolis notes that he had "...been unable to upgrade this in 30+ years." From the Richard Margolis Collection (acquired from M&M in 1963)." This twelve deniers, struck during the early stages of the French Revolution, before the arrest and trial of the king, was meant to supersede the sol of the ancien régime. It was struck at sixteen different mints and is very common in low grade. Many of these were produced by subcontractors outside the regular mint system. The Montpellier mint also struck a few sols aux balances in 1793.

The provisional mints of the Revolution.^[2] Responding to an acute coin shortage caused by the collapse of the assignats, the National Assembly late in 1791 authorized the establishment of temporary mints to supplement the output of base metal coinage by the regular mints. These provisional mints were to be close to existing mints and supervised by mint personnel. These requirements were ignored. The following mints are known to have produced three, six and twelve denier pieces and two sols: Convent des Barnabites (in Paris, but outside the Mint), mintmark "A" with a dot; Arras, mintmark "W" with a dot; Besançon, mintmark "BB"; Clermont-Ferrand, mintmark "I" with a dot; Dijon, mintmark "D" with a dot; Metz (adjacent to the regular mint), mintmark "AA" with a dot; Roanne, mintmark "D"; and Saumur, mintmark "T" with a dot. Most of these mints were closed by the end of 1792 tho some may have operated into 1793.

Recorded mintage: unknown.

Specification: 12.23 g, copper or brass, 29 mm diameter.

Catalog reference: KM-600.12; Gad-15.

Source:

Duplessy, Jean, Les Monnaies Françaises Royales de Hugues Capet à Louis XVI (987-1793), Tome II, 2e édition, Paris: Maison Platt, 1999.
^[2]Gadoury, Victor, Monnaies Françaises, 1789-2019, 24me éd., Monaco: Éditions Victor Gadoury, 2019.
Guilloteau, Victor, Monnaies Françaises, Colonies 1670-1942 et Metropole 1774-1942, Versailles, 1942.
Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
^[1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, June 2026 World Premier Collectors Choice Auction - Selections from the L.E. Bruun Collection, the Richard Margolis Collection and the Kirk Menczer Collection of Republican Reales Minors, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2026.

Link to:

France 1793-N 12 deniers

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