France 1947 50 centimes
This specimen was lot 1049 in Jean Elsen sale 122 (Brussels, September 2014), where it sold for €80 (about US$123 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[2] noted,
"FRANCE, Gouvernement provisoire (1944-1947), 50 centimes, 1947, Morlon. Bronze-aluminium. Rare. Petites taches. Très Beau à Superbe. (France, provisional government (1944-47), fifty centimes of 1947, Morlon type, aluminum bronze, rare, small stains, very fine to extremely fine.)"
This specimen is a scarce date of a type struck at the Paris 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. This particular coin was issued for Algeria and French West Africa, hence rare in France. 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: 2,170,000.
Specification: 2 g, aluminum bronze, 18 mm diameter, designed by Pierre-Alexandre Morlon (1878-1951).
Catalog reference: Gad-423b, F.192/19.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Prieur, Michel, and Laurent Schmitt, Le Franc 10: Les Monnaies, Paris: Éditions les Chevau-légers, 2014.
- [2]Philippe Elsen et al., Vente Publique 122: Collection de monnaies chinoises, Brussels: Jean Elsen et ses Fils, S. A., 2014.
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