France 1976 10 francs
The first specimen was lot 73148 in Stack's Bowers Collector's Choice sale (Costa Mesa, CA, February 2023), where it sold for $120. The catalog description[1] noted, "FRANCE. Silver 10 Francs Piefort, 1976. Paris Mint. PCGS SPECIMEN-64. A glittering near-Gem, this Piefort yields a hulking weight and supreme charm to the surfaces." The circulation issue was struck in large quantities 1974-87 altho some years saw the denomination struck only for collector sets. The price realized seems ridiculously low for a coin of a paltry mintage of 121 pieces until one looks at the piedfort section of the SCWC, where over a thousand different issues are listed, not counting patterns and essais. No one can collect them all, so few try.
Recorded mintage: 94,540,711 for circulation plus 121 piedforts.
Specification: aluminum copper nickel, 26 mm diameter, 10 g, lettered edge.
Catalog reference: F.365/7 and 8, KM 940, KM-P561 (piefort, shown here).
- Gadoury, Victor, Monnaies Françaises, 1789-2019, 24me éd., Monaco: Éditions Victor Gadoury, 2019.
- Prieur, Michel, and Laurent Schmitt, Le Franc 10: Les Monnaies, Paris: Éditions les Chevau-légers, 2014.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, February 2023 World Collectors Choice Online Auction, featuring the David Sterling Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2023.
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