Hi gang! I found this while going through a box of coins. It looks like a 1790's one decime struck over a 2 decime. Usually the catalog notes when overstrikes are common... I see no notation. Anyone collect these?
why is every one finding the cool errors while im stuck with an Alaska extra bear claw? they seem to run from me.
Not saying that's exactly what it is though Matt, just that it is listed. The coin is so worn there's no way to tell what it is that I can see. Nor would I be surprised if there are others that are unlisted. The French seemed to be downright nuts about using coins as planchets and over-striking them. I think I've seen more French over-strikes than I have from any other country. And don't ever trust the books too much. Krause makes more than their share of mistakes. And even Gadoury, (which is the French Red Book), they don't even list a 2 decime at all. Let alone one that has been over-struck. The more I study coins, the more mistakes I find in the books that a lot of us consider our coin bibles. It's getting so I don't have a whole lot of faith in any of them anymore.
It had nothing to do with the revolution. The French had a centuries long habit of using pre-existing coins as planchets for new coins.
The way I see overstrikes, I see it as a cheap way of using old coins and producing fresh coins out of them. Whether this is to erase old monarchy due to political reasons or redenomination, it's still pretty neat.
I think most of the time it was done just as a means of saving money. The King, Queen, Duke, Bishop, Count, - whoever - that was minting the coins made more money in the form of seigniorage by using pre-existing coins as planchets.
Certainly, it was 2 decimes. Rather rare and expensive coin. But I never saw such overstrikes before. I have only a "normal" decime in my collection.
Yours could be an overstrike as well Siberian Man. Pictures aren't clear enough but I suspect it can be a possiblity. I do not think it's rare and expensive. I've seen a couple of examples on ebay and while they aren't too common, they aren't expensive at less than 30 dollars each.
