One Décime, off-centered strike

Started by maudry, July 06, 2017, 10:41:59 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

maudry

This is the coin from my avatar.
It has a very strong off-centered strike but the coin is completely identifiable as all the important information are by chance still visible.
Final E from Décime is on the flan, so I cannot be a 2 Décimes
Year AN 5 and mint mark A are also on the flan.

Figleaf

A spectacular error, maudry. It looks almost as struck, so I guess it fired the interest of a contemporary of the French revolution, who kept it to show, rather than spend it. I am reminded of the aftermath of the storming of the Bastille. The medieval castle was thoroughly and completely taken apart by ... souvenir hunters!

It says something quite positive about the human spirit when blind rage, killing and deep frustration with injustice can so quickly be replaced by elation with "teaching the bastards a lesson" and wanting a souvenir of the accomplishment.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

maudry

The coin is maybe XF.
It doesn't look as worn as most décimes and it has certainly been put aside relatively fast.
But I do also believe that it must have been difficult to spend it as most people would have been skeptical about receiving this coin and refused it.

maudry

I can't believe my luck to have found a similar coin with instead of the obverse an incuse reverse.

Figleaf

Neat find, maudry. Both are Paris mint. That says a lot about the chaos and confusion of those days. I could even imagine that the new and untested powers that be decided that there was enough information on the coin to let it go into circulation.

Your second error is different from the first. The first had only been inserted incorrectly into the press. Your second is brockage. This is a common enough error in the era of steam presses, but it is much less common for screw press produced coins like yours. Possibly, the error was caused by great haste, as pre-revolutionary assignats had to be replaced (though at a large discount) by metallic coins, in order to increase the legitimacy and popularity of the revolutionaries.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

maudry

Thank you for your comment Peter.
Brokerage, yes that is what I wanted to say when I used the word "incuse".
The 5 centimes can be found with brokerage on the obverse but less often on the reverse.
This one combines brokerage on the obverse with a big off-center strike.
This coins did not only go through the "quality checks" but seemed to have spent some time in circulation, judging by its wear.