France 1991 500 francs Fr-623a
This specimen was lot 73710 in Stack's Bowers Collector's Choice sale (Costa Mesa, CA, February 2022), where it sold for $900. The catalog description[1] noted, "FRANCE. Platinum 500 Francs, 1991. Paris Mint. NGC PROOF-69 Ultra Cameo. This impressive proof offers a near flawless nature with a beautiful cameo appearance that divides crisp frosted devices from luminous mirrored fields. The near perfection of this piece provides sensory overload, that is of course assuming the immediate perceptions of the senses can be trusted, a hasty assumption that Descartes himself would never allow to stand without first subjecting such an assumption to methodic doubt. Only then once the anchor point of knowledge is fixed in the knowledge of cogito ergo sum, that no matter how much I may doubt, it is impossible to doubt my own thinking, can a proper view of sensory data be attempted in order to describe this coin as 'nearly flawless.'" This design also appeared on a silver hundred francs (KM 996).
Recorded mintage: 3,000 in gold and 1,000 in platinum.
Specification: KM 1003: 17 g, 0.920 fine gold; KM 1003a: 20 g, 0.999 fine platinum.
Catalog reference: Fr-623a; KM 1003 (gold), KM-1003a (platinum).
- Friedberg, Arthur L. and Ira S. Friedberg, Gold Coins of the World, From Ancient Times to the Present, 9th ed., Clifton, NJ: Coin and Currency Institute, 2017.
- 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, The February 2022 World Collectors Choice Online Auction - Ancients & World Coins, Featuring Selections from the Kings Norton Mint Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers LLC, 2022.
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