Lucien Bazor, French engraver

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Have a look at this 1941 5 francs coin of the French Vichy régime. It was never issued. Lucien Bazor designed all of the Vichy coinage.

Bazor was also responsible for a lot of the beautiful designs of France's colonial coins and some of those of the successor states, e.g. Djibouti, French Polynesia, Madagascar, Saint Pierre et Miquelon, West African States, Central African Republic, Vietnam.

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Thanks, Zombivore. I have updated the Wiki page on Bazor in the French and English version with your information on colonial coins designed by Bazor. My interpretation is that the coins were struck for French Somaliland, French Oceania, Madagascar, Saint Pierre et Miquelon, French West Africa, French Equatorial Africa, and French Indochina. It would help to know which coin were designed by Bazor. I can make an educated guess, but if you have sources, I'd rather be precise. Or you could add that info yourself, if you wish.

Doing the research, I came across another ill-fated Bazor design: the 5 francs 1933. Old Lucien didn't have luck with his French designs. You could call all of them controversial...

Peter

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Bazor was responsible for the obverse and reverse designs of the Comoros 1964 circulation set: 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 francs.

You can see his name on the obverse design, situated at the bottom left, just above the exergue.

His characteristic "wing" mark also appears at either side of the date.

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Bazor also produced the obverse and reverse designs for the French Somaliland circulation coins: 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 francs.

The country was renamed the French Afars and Issas in 1968, when the 50 and 100 francs were added, carrying Rayomond Joly's design of two camels.

The country became independent as Djibouti in 1977.

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Bazor designed the obverse and reverse of the French Equatorial Africa coins of 1948: 1 and 2 francs.

 He was not responsible for the earlier coins produced by the Free French.

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The Equatorial African States, the Central African States, and the Central African Republic, were in some ways successor states to French Equatorial Africa.

Bazor was also responsible for the designs of their first coins, including the three running elands on the obverse.

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Bazor designed the coins of French West Africa that are dated 1948 to 1957: 1, 2, 5, 10 and 25 francs.

He also designed the 1 and 2 francs of Cameroon (1948) and the 1 franc coin of Togo (1948), which bear almost identical designs to the one above.

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Next is French Oceania, for which he designed the 50 centimes, 1,2 and 5 francs (1949-52).

This subsequently became French Polynesia, and Raymond Joly added some new designs and higher denominations.

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Great stuff. Thanks. Two small things. Right of the date is Bazor's sign: a wing. To the left is the mintmark, either a cornucopia (Paris) or a torch (Poissy). Dies are centrally made and distributed to other mints if necessary. The animals on the Central African States franc are gazelles. Going to work on Wikipedia now...

Peter

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Bazor designed all the coins of Reunion dated 1948 to 1973.

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He is also responsible for the designs of the 1948 1 and 2 francs coins of Saint Pierre et Miquelon.

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Among my favourites are Bazor's beautiful designs for Madagascar: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 francs, 1948-58.



Part of the 20 francs design shows a bird's eye view of Madagascar.

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Bazor designed the obverse and reverse of the New Caledonian 50 centimes, 1, 2 and 5 francs coins.

The reverse shows a kagu bird.

Raymond Joly added new designs and higher denominations in the 1960s and 1970s.

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Here is the 10 su coin he designed for Vietnam. Again, very fine designs.

He designed the 10, 20 and 50 su, all dated 1953.

Norman Sillman of England designed the next coins to appear in Vietnam, dated 1960.

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Here is a piece marked trial, but it is a bullion design of his that was actually issued from 1929 to 1936.