French Indochina 1896-A 20 cent
This specimen was lot 34676 in Heritage sale 3094 (Chicago, August 2021), where it sold for $5,760. The catalog description[1] noted, "French Indo-China: French Colony 20 Cents 1896-A MS65 NGC. Paris mint. Fasces variety. A coin that towers above the competition for this type-date, exhibiting ultra-refined detail embedded within a sea of sparkling argent brilliance. A fine tone clings to the legends, accentuating the lettering as a crisp border to brilliant inner features, while the reverse gleams with a fine array of die polish that only further speaks to careful preservation. The single-finest representative at NGC, with no others of the "Fasces" variety seen by PCGS to date." This date comes either with a fasces pricy mark (shown here) or a torch privy mark, with the fasces obtaining a slight premium. The denomination was reduced from 5.44 grams to 5.4 grams in 1896 and then debased from 0.900 to 0.835 fine silver in 1898. The twenty cent was struck in that form until 1916.
Recorded mintage: 300,000 (fasces + torch).
Specification: 5.4 g, 0.900 fine silver.
Catalog reference: KM 3a, Lec-197.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- Gadoury, Victor, and George Cousinié, Monnaies Coloniales Françaises, 1670-1988, 2me Éd., Monaco: Éditions Victor Gadoury, 1988.
- [1]Bierrenbach, Cristiano and Warren Tucker, Heritage World and Ancient Coins Auction 3096, featuring the Paramount Collection of World & Ancient Coins, Dallas, TX: Heritage Auction Galleries, 2021.
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