I recently picked this up. As usual with coins with nice surfaces, the scanner doesn't do it justice, but I think it's a neat coin. It's an essai coin. I kind of know what that is, but can someone explain it again? Isn't it a trial or something like that?
I think Essai = Pattern ? I do not see it listed in my Krause in the Essai section. very cool coin. I must research further. p.s. I liked it also because it is my birth year 1961
on Ebay now has 2 of this coin 1 going for $35.00 and the other going for $121. 1 of them has a KM#E3...I looked it up and it is for the essai 5 franc. confused here.
Right, an essai piece is a trial or pattern piece. Nice design indeed. Here is one; the description also says "N° dans les ouvrages de référence : KM/WC.20/E3", so I guess that would be the KM number. That page does not say anything about the mintage. The gazelle/antelope was used a lot on early West African/BCEAO coins. The stylized fish on the other side is an old gold weight; the figure is the emblem of the BCEAO and still used on today's circulation coins ... Christian
Thanks for the info. I always wondered what that symbol was. I have a lot of West African coins but this is the first essai. I had trouble finding it in Krause at first too. The secret is there's one entry for French West Africa going up to a certain year, and then a separate entry for West Africa. This is under West Africa. I think I paid around $8 for it.
