Yesterday i bought a french 10 Centimes which turns out to be an essai, or a test coin. Are these essais, strictly speaking, actually coins?
No not neciserily, a Essai or pattern coin can be a few different things, a coin that is, A coin that might have been and a coin that could be LOL Also but I am not 100% certain about this I have heard that French Essai coins were often created for collectors. Ps any chance of seeing a pic
Under a strict definition, no as they were never intended and in fact did not circulate as coins. The essais were produced most commonly in competitons held by the French Mint to see which designs would be chosen for the new coins to be issued for circulation.
Right, not actually coins in the sense of "means of payment". From a collector's point of view, there is of course a huge difference between "essai" (or "próba" etc.) pieces that are issued by the government, and those that are private productions and thus basically medals ... Christian
