I bought some coins while on vacation, last weekend and this is one that I bought. I can't find any info on it, I assume it's french. I tried googling it, and everything was in a forigen lang. Thanks, Dalton
French State 1943 1 franc coin - aluminum made from 1942 - 1944. Worth about a dollar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vichy_France
France Vichy coin The coin that you showed is a Vichy French State issue franc. This means that the coin was minted by the war government of France (that actually resided in Vichy, France at that moment). It is a aluminum coin of approximately 23 mm, designed by Lucien Bazor (hence the LB at rigfht of the axe). At the left of the axe, you can clearly see the mint mark B for Beaumont. This coin is registered in Krause under KM902.2 with a mintage of 68.082.000 pieces (and 205.564.000 for the ones without mintmark). The pricing for the B mintmark is F 5, VF 9, XF 28, UNC 80 and BU 120 (source Krause 1901-2000 edition 2008). This coin is quite regular to find in lower conditions, but is scarce in XF and higher (hence the high price). The pricing given earlier in this thread is correct, but is linked to a more common non mintmarked coin! On the picture it looks like the coin is quite high grade, but you can only be sure of that if you have the coin in hand of course! At your service, Jupke
For future reference, I'm a fan of: http://en.numista.com/ Search by inscriptions, country, value, even special characters. Not a lot of history about any given coin, but mintages, composition, and technical details abound. Great starting point for finding the denomination, KM #, and other facts, which can aid more detailed research attempts.
