France 1938 50 centimes

from the Mountain Groan Collection

This specimen is a common date of a type struck at the Paris mint 1931-41 under the French Third Republic (1870-1940) along with similar one and two francs. This design was suspended by the Vichy regime in favor of the Francisque type. When the Morlon type was resumed in 1944, after the Liberation, it was struck in aluminum. 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 1949.

Recorded mintage: 55,706,659.

Specification: 2 g, aluminum bronze, 18 mm diameter, after a design by Pierre Alexandre Morlon (1878-1951).

Catalog reference: F.192/14, KM 894.1.

Source:

• Gadoury, Victor, Monnaies Françaises, 1789-2019, 24me éd., Monaco: Éditions Victor Gadoury, 2019.
• Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
• Prieur, Michel, and Laurent Schmitt, Le Franc 10: Les Monnaies, Paris: Éditions les Chevau-légers, 2014.

Link to:

• 1937 50 centimes
• 1938 5 centimes, copper-nickel
• 1938 5 centimes, copper-nickel-zinc
• 1938 copper-nickel-zinc 10 centimes
• 1938 25 centimes
• 1938 franc
• 1938 2 francs
• 1938 5 francs, aluminum-bronze
• 1938 10 francs
• 1938 20 francs
• 1939 50 centimes
• Coins and currency dated 1938