France 1855-MA 5 centimes

from the Mountain Groan Collection

The specimen shown is a five centimes "tête nue" of Napoleon III, of a type struck 1853-57. It was minted in Marseille (mintmark "MA"). It is a common date but two privy marks are known, a dog's head and an anchor (shown here). The SCWC^[2] gives the anchor privy mark a slight premium but Le Franc^[3] prefers the dog's head.

The regime of Napoleon III finally carried out plans developed during the 1840's to melt down and remint all the old copper circulating in France, some of it dating back to before the Revolution of 1789. Several branch mints were reopened for this purpose. The existing mints were Paris ("A"), Strasbourg ("BB") and Bordeaux ("K"); the reopened mints were Lille ("W"), Marseilles ("MA"), Rouen ("B") and Lyon ("D"). The two centimes is the scarcest of the bronze denominations of Napoleon III, tho it is not rare. For comparison, here are the mintages of each denomination 1853-57:

1 centime: 66.8 million
2 centimes: 58 million
5 centimes: 414 million
10 centimes: 258.8 million

The coinage of bronze was suspended in 1857 but resumed in 1861 using a different bust, the "tête laurée." Only Paris, Strasbourg and Bordeaux participated in this later issue.

Recorded mintage: 4,821,260 (dog's head privy mark) plus 10,572,353 (anchor)^[3].

Specification: 25 mm diameter, 5 g, bronze, plain edge, Designed by Jean-Jacques Barré, 1793-1855.

Catalog reference: Gadoury 248. F.116/27, KM 777.1.

Sources:

Gadoury, Victor, Monnaies Françaises, 1789-2019, 24me éd., Monaco: Éditions Victor Gadoury, 2019.
^[3]Prieur, Michel, and Laurent Schmitt, Le Franc 10: Les Monnaies, Paris: Éditions les Chevau-légers, 2013.
^[2]Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.

Link to:

France 1855-MA 5 centimes

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