France L'AN8-W decime
This specimen was lot 320 in Classical Numismatic Group's sale of the Lissner Collection (Chicago, August 2014), where it sold for $907.50. The catalog description[1] noted, "FRANCE, Premier République. Directoire. 1795-1799. CU Décime. Lille mint; différents: Artemis and cornucopia. Augustin Dupré, engraver general. L.-Th. François Lepage, director. Dated L’An 8 (AD 1799/1800). In NGC encapsulation graded MS 64 BN. Very nice even moderate brown patina. Only date ever graded. A beautiful coin. Purchased from M. Louis Teller, February 1974." The numismatics of the bronze coinage of the First Republic of France is complex. For the five centimes, the first issue (An 4-5) was 5 g, 23 mm diameter and was immediately rejected by the populace along with the 10 g décime (10 centimes) and the 20 g double décime (20 centimes). During An 5, the government tried again with larger coins, increasing the 5 centimes to 10 g and the décime to 20 g and abandoning the double décime. The revised types met with some success and they were issued in substantial numbers until An 9. Leftover stocks of light weight décimes were overstruck into five centimes and double décimes converted into décimes. In all, about 114 million were produced for the type. They circulated until the 1850's and today few are found in Very Fine or better.
During An 8, this type was struck at Paris ("A"), Metz ("AA"), Strasbourg ("BB"), Lyon ("D"), Geneva ("G"), Limoges ("I"), Bordeaux ("K") and Lille ("W", shown here). Paris produced the majority.
Recorded mintage: 368,824 but scarce.
Specification: bronze, 20 g, 32 mm diameter, "chevronned" edge, designed by Augustin Dupré (1748-1833). This specimen is Ø32 mm, 21.55 g, 6h axis.
Catalog reference: VG 187a; KM 644.1, F.129/42.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- 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.
- [1]Teller, M. Louis, and Victor England, Jr., The Richard Lissner Collection, Lancaster, PA: Classical Numismatic Group, 2014.
Link to:
- An 8-BB 5 centimes
- An 8-G 5 centimes
- An 8-W 5 centimes
- An 8-AA décime
- An 8-BB décime
- An 8-I décime
- An 8-K décime
- France L'AN 8-A 2 decimes pattern
- France L'AN 8-A 5 decimes pattern
- An 8-A 5 francs
- An 8-K 5 francs
- L'AN 8-Q 5 francs
- L'AN 8/5-T 5 francs
- L'AN 8-W 5 francs
- Coins and currency dated 1799
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