Is this a French token or a coin?

I dont speak or read french, but my wife said it says GOOD FOR 1 FRANC. And I can see chamber of commerce. Token?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Token. It was not produced by the French government.

 

thanks

 

Maybe someone else can come in with the history to explain why they used "Chamber of Commerce" token-like coinage in the 1920s, but this is standard French coinage for the period, and is listed in Krause alongside more typical State coinage.

 

Agreed with PaddyB, it has a denomination

 

Some information
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces705.html

 

So it is celebrating Mercury, who happens to be the god of commerce. Thanks for the link.

 

I was also interested as to why they switched to the "Bon Pour" token like coinage in 1921 and have found this on another forum. (Thanks to "Ian" on Coinpeople.com in 2006.)

"After World War I the french economy was in dire straits, as was that of Germany and most other European countries. There was a general lack of coinage which in no small part was due to France doggedly sticking with the silver standard in issuance of its 50c, 1 fr and 2 fr coins up to and including 1920 due to the prevailing mantra of the time `Le bosche payera!' (the germans will pay!). They were of course relying on Germany making good on demands by the allies for war reparations, which frankly were very unrealistic. Germany simply did not have the resources to make good on expectations. Hence no silver and coin shortages. Although some coinage was being produced it was not sufficient to satisfy the demand throughout the land.

This led on to the emergence of private tokens to facilitate trade locally.Then there was stamp money (monnaie de timbre) followed by numerous local Chambers of Commerce issuing their own token coinage (or `notgeld'). The latter were (with a few exceptions) usually small denomination aluminium coins for 5c, 10, 10c, 25c and 50c and only valid on a very local basis. It forms a whole collecting area in its own right. I've a few of these and will scan them sometime this week.

However, although linked to the history and raison d'etre of the `bon pour' Mercury coinage , the brass `bon pour' coinages (using an engraving by Domard as its obverse) were official. The National Chamber of Commerce agreed with the government to issue nationally acceptable 50c, 1fr, and 2 fr coins. However because of the political sentiment prevailing mentioned previously (le bosche payera) and the belief that France would return to the use of silver coinage, the brass coinage was always seen as only being an interim feature and that these would indeed be replaced /exchanged in due course with silver. Hence the use of `bon pour' (good for).

As we know, France never did return to silver coinage and as such they remained in circulation until they were eventually demonetised.

The brass `bon pour' 50c was issued between 1921 -1929, the 1 fr and 2 fr between (1920 -1927). All bear the same obverse design .

There are some variations which make for interesting collecting (including partial die fills with the engravers name and dates partially obliterated; open 5's closed 5's open 4's closed 4's, overstruck dates etc). It's a relatively cheap and rewarding way to start learning about die states and variations.

The later dates for the 1 fr and 2fr of this type are very much sought after and can cost an arm and a leg in higher grades."

 

It were not tokens. It were legal French coins. They were to be exchanged for silver coins of a similar denomination. But they never did.

 

Such coins were minted not only in France. Here are the coins of Belgium.

 

Monaco.

 

I have some of the Belgium coins too.

 

Luxembourg.

 

Romania.

 

Very interesting. I have never seen these Romanian coins before. I had no idea they were also caught up in this phenomenon.

 

Here are the rest

 

I beg to differ Mr. Flute. It is actually a French coin.

Here is the NGC :

france-franc-km-876-1920-1927-cuid-1128376-duid-1264585

 

Got that already from an earlier post. I always presumed they were tokens but never actually researched the subject fully.

 

Yeah, they outdrawed me....lol