davidrj

5 sols, but only exchangeable for assignats (practically worthless notes) Wiki entry:- Les Frères Monneron was built up in England by Matthew Boulton, thanks to the steam engine of James Watt, producing 2 and 5 sols coins in great quantities in the Soho factory in Birmingham from the end of 1791. Watt's steam engine.necessity money eased the coinage shortage then current in France and their technical and aesthetic quality was much superiour to mediocre base metal issues produced by official sources. In March 1792, the Monnerons went bankrupt and Pierre fled. His brother Augustin took over the business, but a law of 3 May 1792 forbade the production of money by private concerns. In September a decree forbade the commercialisation of confidence-coins. These necessity coins were in circulation until the end of 1793. These pieces of

Another from France But this one is a nice chunk of copper from Matthew Boulton at the Soho mint Moneron de 5 sols 1792 Not uncommon, but nice to find one with some original lustre and very few knocks thought it worth the €40 I paid for it David

The only penny sized coins in brass I can think of are:- N.Vietnam 2 dong 1946 (v. crude and minted in Hanoi) S.African 1cent 1961-1964 (probably inted in Pretoria) Kenyan 10 cents 1966-1991 (?Royal Mint) Latter could possibly be the culprit david

Ouch!

As is the large incuse "R" to the left of the shield, I wonder what R stands for? David

Interesting, the large character looks similar to script on some Ethiopian coins, I've no idea what it is though There's an overstruck "penny" here that most folk would chuck into their junk tin. But it's rare, only the second one I've seen for sale Spanish 10 centimos overstruck for use in Puerto Rico (though seller does not seem to know this) A gap in my collection that's likely to be permanent, certainly at that asking price! David

Happy Birthday!

I got the same two wrong, so just 5 for me

Most of the world has a climate, we have weather

yes!

Yes! I had those as a kid, can you still get them? I'm a Holland's steak pudding fan, but you definitely need two of them, with mushy peas of course David

If I had that cash to spare, I would. That's one of the best obverses I've seen for it. Nevermind that the 18KN is very much commoner than the 19KN, it's still a beaut. I'd give it houseroom!! Now you're making me wish I'd gone higher. I've missed out on several coins that I'd really hoped to acquire in the last week and have that frustrating serial underbidder feeling! You could always go for this one only £700

The other statistic that's interesting is "Online At Once Record : 82 09 August 2010 06:31pm" Whenever I look to see who's on line there is usually just one or two of us. Was there a coin related story on the tea time news on that day? David

I've met both Theresa Green & Annette Curtin David

The description says "nice collectable coin" !!!!!

Interesting coin, It certainly looks like a 1 over 1. The only 1874 double struck 4 I've seen is in a Heaton strike and very different from the London Coins one, lousy condition but interesting for the broken 7 David

I remember it well, Chemistry Practical - all Friday afternoon, qualitative analysis - we had access to the works, and a bit of unofficial chemistry was commonplace; take a penny, give it a quick dip in conc nitric acid then drop it into 10% mercuric chloride. 1961 long before Health & Safety The dental amalgam was insoluble and of very little hazard to the patients. However both dentists and their nurses did suffer problems due to long term exposure of fumes from traces of spilt mercury An example of why Health & Safety was necessary What we often lack these days is intelligent interpretation of risk - so managers ban everything in case they are sued. David

Agreed! But thought it worthy of record as the 1875H variety is in Gouby Thanks, it's one of those hard to find in higher grades, this coin has some residual lustre, pity about the dings, but then it only cost me €17 David

Sorry duplicate posting Got an error message saying I had exceeded allowed number of postings, then it adds my post twice.... odd

Ditto lot 2210 the 1863 open 3 in VG notice a few gaps, so I'm assuming not sold David

definite doubling of the R of REG and colon dots and the end of the tie ribbon. This is almost identical to Gouby's BP1875Hf So is this a retouched die as Gouby states, or were Heaton having bouncing die problems? David

An 1876 H wide date penny - Gouby BP1876H, Freeman 74 evidence of retouching to obverse legend - see below:-

No English shilling? David

CGB have now put their current catalogue values (for 6 grades) of French coins on line here Nice development, Spink et al take note, serious collectors will still buy the printed catalogue for the wealth of background info I happen to think that Le Franc is probably the best single country catalogue on the market and excellent value at €28 David

Interesting! First time I've seen a picture of that variety - thanks David