France 1945-B 50 centimes

from the Mountain Groan Collection

This specimen is a common date of a type struck at the Beaumont-le-Roger mint 1944-47 under the provisional Free French government along with similar one and two francs. When the Morlon type was resumed in 1944, after the Liberation, it was struck in aluminum. The half franc which replaced it in 1965 with the inauguration of the Fifth Republic was worth one hundred of these coins. This type was demonetized in 1950.

Recorded mintage: 6,356,819.

Specification: 0.7 g, aluminum, 18 mm diameter, designed by Pierre-Alexandre Morlon (1878-1951).

Catalog reference: F.194/5, KM 894.1a.

Source:

• Gadoury, Victor, Monnaies Françaises, 1789-2019, 24me éd., Monaco: Éditions Victor Gadoury, 2019.
• Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
• Prieur, Michel, and Laurent Schmitt, Le Franc 10: Les Monnaies, Paris: Éditions les Chevau-légers, 2014.

Link to:

• 1944 50 centimes Morlon
• 1944-B 50 centimes Vichy
• 1945 10 centimes
• 1945-B 20 centimes
• 1945 franc
• 1945-C 2 francs, aluminum, Morlon head
• 1945 aluminum 5 francs
• 1945-C aluminum bronze 5 francs
• 1945 10 francs
• 1947-B 50 centimes
• Coins and currency dated 1945