France: copper specimen striking of a 10-centime pattern (essai), 1848

Here is my long awaited new purchase.



Here is the cert page.

Here is an interesting (and seemingly independent) blog post about this very coin.

Look closely at her necklace. That pretty much sums up my feeling about this piece.

I parted with some of my better love tokens to buy this, but don't think I'll regret that.

Post your pattern coins, if you have any, and if not, post a pattern type you've always admired, if you like.

 

I think those are perhaps random marks that coincidentally look like "NA". They can't be that severe, or there's no way PCGS would've given this the SP65 grade. It would have "details" graded if there were really graffiti there. (Besides, that graffiti would be so tiny that it's difficult to imagine someone squinting through a magnifier to do it, surely?)

However, they can't be on the plastic, either, since PCGS Secure / Trueview images are done prior to encapsulation.

I'll have to check that out when it arrives. I told Atlas to take their time shipping it due to the present hurricane uncertainties here.

Thanks for the background on Domard. I would've eventually Googled that sort of thing up myself, but hadn't, yet.

 

No longer own them of course but I used to own these. The second one was always my favorite of the two

 

Yes, these have gone up quite a bit in the years since 2004, I gather.

I bought a couple of white-metal 1848 5-franc patterns in old small ANACS PR63 holders- quite awesome designs- for $200-ish apiece at the FUN show sometime around then (2004-2006-ish).

Though this piece is a pop. 1 coin at PCGS, I see Heritage sold an NGC 63 in January of 2014 for $258. Considering that coin was a 63 and this one is a 65 with far more spectacular toning, I am content with the price I just paid.

That little "NA" anomaly @cpm9ball pointed out does bear further examination when I have this piece in hand (I told Atlas to take their time shipping it since I was fleeing a hurricane), but I don't think it will amount to much. Surely PCGS would not have 65-ed it if there were really graffiti there. And it is not plastic scratches, since the TrueView images are done before the coins are encapsulated in plastic at PCGS. I expect it may be just a few stray marks that were picked up by the lighting and coincidentally look like graffiti.

The PR65 CAM 3c piece in my Box of 20 has such a mark at the top of the obverse which shows in the pictures, but in hand is only visible with a loupe, at certain angles to the light. (You can even see that mark, to the left of the word "OF", if you squint at that coin on the far right in my signature line image.) Such can be the case on early proofs.

 

There were some very, very faint hairlines, there, but they were practically invisible to the naked eye, only at certain angles to the light, and were not any kind of graffiti. Obviously PCGS did not consider them noteworthy as far as the grade went.