Still a completionist at heart

[davidrj]

I've just spent $20 on a truly horrible coin, but it filled my last gap in the series of French bronze 10 centime pieces (1852-1921)

The 1878 K Bordeaux mint has a recorded mintage of 100,000, but probably the vast majority were dated 1877, and is the rarest of the series (Ok there is a very rare variety of 1897 - 3 known) much harder to find than the 1871 K (mintage 26,500) and catalogues at €150 on Good (B10)

I tend to buy interesting coins by type these days, but at heart I guess I'm still the one trying to fill all the gaps in my Whitman folders

[Garrett]

Congratulations on your achievement !

[Peter]

Seconded

Well done David.

I also enjoy my French copper.

[davidrj]

Of course a completionist is never happy with the grades of all dates, so I've been looking to upgrade my 1853 MA 10 centimes

Another difficult one with a mintage of just 1,009,338, and I came accross this one for €20 on Ebay

a reasonable price but no improvement on grade, until I noticed the Marseillles mintmaster's mark of a scallop shell is inverted - an unrecorded variety

cont below ...

[davidrj]

Here's a detailed image

I emailed the editors of "Le Franc" at CGB and got this reply

"Dear Sir,

We thank you a lot for this information. We got once that coin with the reversed shell... but we didn't notice it.
Can we publish the photo of your coin in one of our next "Bulletin Numismatique" to present your discovery, and so we will ask if somebody else have a similar coin ?

I wish you a nice day.

Best Regards"

A speedy and honest response!!! If only Spink were as accomodating

[Paulus]

Nice one David, you must be delighted! :)

[PWA 1967]

Hat off nice reply and well spotted.