Sunday Special - France 10 Francs

France

10 Francs

1940

Pick #84

G

Value: $0.25 

Here's another Sunday Special! This one is from France.  France is one of those places that everyone wants to visit at least once in their lifetime.  I've had the pleasure of living there for some time and traveled everywhere except for.... Paris. Don't get me wrong or anything but I avoided Paris for one reason, I wanted to save it for another time.  Paris is immense and there are so many museums and art galleries to visit that to go to Paris, one or two days just doesn't do it justice.  Now, in furtherance of my reason not to go, I took a class on the art, architecture and the metropolis itself when I was in university.  The knowledge that I gained from class prompted me to think that I should go to Paris as just a one week trip so I could enjoy the grand boulevards, cafes, art and people that make Paris the city it is today.  Now, in terms of my travels through France, I lived in Lyon, in a little suburb called Tassin-la-Demi-Lune, been to Strasbourg, Colmar, Mulhouse, Dijon, Beaune, Annecy, Chamonix, Valence, Avignon, Frejus & St. Raphael, Cannes, Antibes, Nice, Menton & Other smaller French Riviera Cities.  Out of all of the cities that I visited, Lyon had the best food and people, Beaune had the best wine, Dijon the best mustard, Strasbourg the best sauerkraut, Chamonix the best mountain views, Annecy the prettiest city view, Frejus & St. Raphael the best beach town, Nice the best fun town, Cannes the best celebrity and yuppie area and finally Menton the best small town atmosphere.  I absolutely love France, among other countries around the world.  If I had to live in any country in Europe, it would be France.  Anyways, enough of my travel rant, here's some insight on this note!

This note, being that it is French, is quite beautiful.  Out of all of the notes produced by all the different countries during the early 1900's-.  The artwork is extravagant and extremely detailed.  Although the artwork is superb, the quality of their notes are sub-par.  The paper used is usually extremely thin and flimsy, but the trade-off is that the note is really a piece of art.  This note holds true to that generalization.  The paper is flimsy but the artwork is really nice!  You find this quality of every French note produced worldwide and in all of their former colonies.  Indochina, for instance, used the same paper for the majority of their notes and the artwork was very beautiful. Not much to say about this note other than the fact that the front of the note depicts Minerva and the reverse has a sitting woman.  Still a very pretty note! 

Saturday Random Day - Vive La France!

C'est pour mes amis francophonie, et aussi pour mes amis Français qui viens de Lyon (Allez Olympique Lyonnais!) et les autres villes Français.  Je suis désolé pour mon mauvais français, mais j'ai oublié la plupart de la langue.  J'ai pensé qu'il serait amusant de post en français pour la première fois sur mon blog.  L'histoire: j'ai acheté ces pièces dans un magasin à Michigan (E.U.) pour à peu près 0,50 Euro.  C'est pas cher aux états-unis et il y a une grande variété de pièces à choisir.  C'étaient les meilleures pièces françaises que j'ai pu trouver.  Il devient de plus en plus rare de trouver pièces françaises ici.  C'est fatigant (écrit en français)! Fin!

Back to Anglais, I found these at the coin store in Michigan, part of that large hoard that I pulled out.  The 25 centimes coins were about the most valuable in here and they are quite old! I did this post in French because I can speak it (to an extent).  And now that I'm really tired, I'm going to leave you with the stats!

France 5 Centimes – 1901 VF – KM#842		France 5 Centimes – 1912 VF – KM#842		France 5 Centimes – 1931 XF – KM#875		France 10 Centimes – 1918 XF – KM#866a
France 25 Centimes – 1903 VF – KM#855		France 25 Centimes – 1904 VF – KM#856		France 50 Centimes – 1923 VF – KM#884		France 1 Franc – 1921 XF – KM#876
France 10 Francs – 1947 XF – KM#909.1		France 10 Francs – 1948 CF – KM#909.1		France 100 Francs – 1954 XF – KM#919.1		France 1 Franc – 1992 XF – KM#1004.1

Tuesday Treasure Trove - Belgium

Pictured Above - Coins from Belgium

So I picked these coins up at one of my favorite coin shops in Michigan.  Anyways, they are part of that gigantic 442 coin hoard that I purchased!  You will notice a lot of zinc here, and that's because I love collecting zinc coins!  Most of these were overlooked by other collectors and left in the bin for me to collect!  Instead of my traditional format that I've been using, I have instead opted to use my labeling format, where I use return address labels to label my coins, this is exactly what I type on them so that I'm able to identify the coin in the future!  Have fun!

Here are the stats on these lovely coins, from left to right, top to bottom!

Belgium 5 Centimes – 1910 VF – KM#67		Belgium (German WWI Occupation) 5 Centimes – 1915 XF – KM#80		Belgium (German WWI Occupation) 5 Centimes – 1916 AU – KM#80		Belgium (German WWI Occupation) 10 Centimes – 1916 VF – KM#81
Belgium 1 Franc – 1930 VF – KM#89		Belgium 1 Franc – 1934 XF – KM#89		Belgium 2 Franc – 1944 AU – KM#133		Belgium 5 Francs – 1939 AU – KM#117.2
Belgium (German WWII Occupation) 5 Francs – 1941 (French) XF – KM#129.1		Belgium (German WWII Occupation) 5 Francs – 1943 (French) XF – KM#129.1		Belgium (German WWII Occupation) 5 Francs – 1941 (Flemmish) AU – KM#130		Belgium (German WWII Occupation) 5 Francs – 1941 (Flemmish) AU – KM#130

Wednesday World Coins and Currency - WWI Emergency Tokens

Left to Right: Perpignan - France 5 Centimes, Mainz - Germany 10 Pfennig, Gunzenhausen - Germany 20 Pfennig

Hello readers! Here's something that I picked up from the foreign coin bin at a shop that I went to in Michigan.  These are 3 out of 442 coins that I picked up from the box, it basically came to 4 cents a coin, which is a complete steal, considering the fact that these coins are actually worth quite a bit!  Unfortunately I do not have a lot of information about these coins except that I know that the German coins (Mainz and Gunzenhausen) are Notgeld and the French coin (Perpignan) is an emergency token.  Here are the stats!

Perpignan 5 Centimes - Dated 1921, made from aluminum.  The obverse of the coin has what I presume are the former coat of arms of the City of Perpignan, France.  The reverse of the coin says "Chambre Syndicale Des Commercants", which in English would mean Chamber of Commerce, and also the denomination, 5 Centimes.  All that I know is that these tokens were made to fill the need for small change after the first World War.  This particular coin goes for around $5.00 online in XF condition.  I'm just going to say that this one is probably around a F-VF condition, and maybe worth a $1.00 - $2.00.  Still for 4 cents, it was a good find because you won't find too many of these.

Here's a wikipedia article on Perpignan if you're interested: Perpignan - Wikipedia

Mainz 10 Pfennig - Dated 1918, made from iron.  The obverse of this coin has the current coat of arms of the City of Mainz, Germany which depicts two five-spoked silver wheels connected by a silver cross..  The reverse shows the number 10 and the date 1918.  This coins is nearly 100 years old and is still in pretty good shape, VG-VF in my opinion.  These coins go for around $8.00-$12.00 in the condition that you see here.  Also another great find for the money! I love cherry picking!

Here's a wikipedia article on Mainz if you would like to see where it's located: Mainz - Wikipedia

Gunzenhausen 20 Pfennig - No date (Minted in 1917), made from zinc (a very popular wartime metal for coinage).  The obverse has again, what I presume to be the coat of arms for the City of Gunzenhausen, Germany.  The reverse is very simple and only depicts the number 20.  This was the first of the 3 coins that I found when I went looking for good deals.  I have a habit of always looking at the zinc coins first and then looking for unusual coins afterwards.  This one happens to be in pretty good shape and also the oldest of the three.  I would say its about VF-XF, you still see lots of detail and very few dents or scratches.  This was going online for approximately $15.00 in this condition.  Once again, another great find in the foreign coin bins!

Here's a very short article on Gunzenhausen: Gunzenhausen - Wikipedia

Enjoy!