French Gold

[CyberspaceVoid]

Hi,

 

I have a lot of older French gold coins, mainly 20F pieces that I am trying to decide what is worth slabbing and well, lets say just sell on the rest to a new home. While I have the original mintage figures is there any place that has some reasonable estimate of survival rates? Thanks for any guidance.

 

Wendy

[World Colonial]

I do not collect French coins, do not own any and have followed their pricing very little. If I were in your position, I would check the Krause manual, not because it is generally accurate (it is not), but to get an idea on the relative prices between different dates. I would also check auction sites like Teletrade (not sure they have sold any recently), eBay and maybe Heritage.

 

From the little I know of French coins, the 20F are mostly bullion substitutes essentially.

[CyberspaceVoid]

Thanks for your input, World Colonial! I was getting a little worried there .

 

I agree, most of the more recent French G20F (post 1848) are indeed treated by most as bullion coins and rightly so with their mintages in the millions. However there are several years during the Restoration period that had limited mintages and these are about what I am really concerned.

 

I will take your advice and check Krause, I forgot about that tome, but just looking at the NGC census with a few exceptions not many of these coins have even been graded.

[World Colonial]

I have not checked the census populations for these issues but for most non-US coins, I do not believe they disclose much (if anything) about how available they are.

 

The reason for this is that most collectors outside the United States do not like their coins graded. Anyone can see this by looking at auctions outside the United States on sites such as Sixbid.com where most expensive coins (a few thousand USD and up) are sold "raw".

[HiHoAudio]

The 20F Marianne Rooster series can be divided into two separate sets, the early coins (1899-1906) which were never restruck and are difficult to locate in higher grades, and the later coins (1907-1914) which were restruck and are still somewhat plentiful.

 

The 1899-1906 coins feature the edge inscription “Dieu Protege La France”, which translates to “God Protects France”, while the 1907-1914 coins feature the edge inscription “Liberte Egalite Fraternite”, which translates to “Liberty Equality Fraternity”.

 

I would not hesitate to certify any 20F in UNC condition dated 1899-1906, especially the 1899, 1900 and 1901 coins, as these are few and far between.

[CyberspaceVoid]

Thanks for your input, HiHo, I didnt't know about the restriking of the 1907-1914 Mariannes. Most of my collection of French 20Fs are older, and I have a few 40Fs as well (Napoleon Consular) but I know I want to keep those Any other suggestions on the following?

 

Wendy

 

Yr-mint Denon Variety Orig Mintage

1814-A 20 Fr - Louis XVIII (Tiolier) 2.684

1815-A 20 Fr - Louis XVIII (Tiolier) 2.113

1817-A 20 Fr - Louis XVIII 2.135

1818-A 20 Fr - Louis XVIII 2.681

1819-A 20 Fr - Louis XVIII 2.350

1824-A 20 Fr - Louis XVIII 1.510

1838-A 20 Fr - Louis Philippe I 0.139

1839-A 20 Fr - Louis Philippe I 1.012

1840-A 20 Fr - Louis Philippe I 2.045

1841-A 20 Fr - Louis Philippe I 0.610

1844-A 20 Fr - Louis Philippe I 0.103

1848-A 20 Fr - Louis Philippe I 0.442

1850-A 20 Fr - Ceres 3.964

1851-A 20 Fr - Ceres 12.704

1853-A 20 Fr - Napoleon III 5.729

1855-A 20 Fr - Napoleon III 16.595

1859-A 20 Fr - Napoleon III 20.295

1861-A 20 Fr - Napoleon III Laureate 2.607

1862-BB 20 Fr - Napoleon III Laureate 2.907

1865-A 20 Fr - Napoleon III Laureate 2.951

1866-A 20 Fr - Napoleon III Laureate 6.992

1866-BB 20 Fr - Napoleon III Laureate 6.979

1867-A 20 Fr - Napoleon III Laureate 2.923

1867-BB 20 Fr - Napoleon III Laureate 4.516

1868-A 20 Fr - Napoleon III Laureate 9.281

1868-BB 20 Fr - Napoleon III Laureate 4.829

1869-A 20 Fr - Napoleon III Laureate 4.046

1869-BB 20 Fr - Napoleon III Laureate 7.317

1870-A 20 Fr - Napoleon III Laureate 0.865

1875-A 20 Fr - "Angel" 11.746

1876-A 20 Fr - "Angel" 8.825

1877-A 20 Fr - "Angel" 12.759

1878-A 20 Fr - "Angel" 9.189

1886-A 20 Fr - "Angel" 0.985

1890-A 20 Fr - "Angel" 1.030

1893-A 20 Fr - "Angel" 2.517

1895-A 20 Fr - "Angel" 5.293

1896-A 20 Fr - "Angel" 5.330

1897-A 20 Fr - "Angel" 11.069

1898-A 20 Fr - "Angel" 8.866

1903 20 Fr - "Rooster" 4.405

1905 20 Fr - "Rooster" 9.158

1906 20 Fr - "Rooster" type 66 14.613

1907 20 Fr - "Rooster" 17.716

1908 20 Fr - "Rooster" 6.721

1909 20 Fr - "Rooster" 9.637

1911 20 Fr - "Rooster" 5.346

1912 20 Fr - "Rooster" 10.332

1913 20 Fr - "Rooster" 12.163

1914 20 Fr - "Rooster" 6.518

 

[CyberspaceVoid]

well that post looked a lot better organized on the input screen. I am suprised that the board cannot paste from existing spreadsheets better! Live and learn.

 

[HiHoAudio]

Wendy, that's quite an impressive collection of French gold, no matter how the forum software displayed it.

 

Nice group of Angels.

[mkman123]

send them all in to NGC, would look nice in holders and make you and anyone else comfortable that they are real. I think when its time to sell, people are more comfortable with a slabbed coin

[CyberspaceVoid]

Thank you, HiHo. All of these came out of a French bank in the mid 1990's when no one really wanted gold. I got a new camera and might still take a few high detail pictures to better judge the grade ... my eyes arent what they used to be . If I do I might throw a few here on the site to get other's judgements.

 

Mkman123, I would get them slabbed as MSsomething (many are) if they are worth a little over BV then it wouldnt be cost effective to grade them at NGC's world gold rate of $30 per coin ... hense my thread. I do agree it would be easier to sell on the net, but if I just sold them over the counter or at a local club I doubt it would be a problem getting rid of them.