Swiss and French coins

Not at all. And thanks for the images! Just wondering - what do you plan to do with so many demonetized coins? I have those too, but just one or maybe two of each type ...

Christian

 

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Eventually I'll resell them for profits but for a while I'll be keeping them. I did make good deals on a lot of my foreign coins. It may be years though before cashing out.

 

I see. And yes, those bimetallic 10 fr coins I like!

Christian

 

I like the bimetallic too, but since they are bimetallic doesn't that kind of hurt the bullion potential? I'm hoarding the pure nickel coins but I wouldn't hoard the bimetallic ones, frankly.

 

France.
2 francs 1944. It were the days of struggle against fascism...

 

Maybe so, but severely damaged coins can still be (professionally) recycled. The primary reason for having bimetallic coins was not the intrinsic value but to make counterfeiting more difficult, and to allow for additional sizes ...

@Siberian Man - Right, those coins were minted in Philadelphia. Produced in 1945, I think, and the design is not terribly elaborate but it got the job done. Mostly in Southern France and Algeria from what I have read.

Christian

 

Even though the bi-metal ones don't have a good bullion value, they do hold decent prices in bulk lots on ebay. And they complete the collection by getting all denominations.

And for the prices I got the coins they were worth it.

 

Here's some of my nickel coins

 

Those 2 guldens look like they are from the Netherlands.... me likey.

 

Yeah it's fun hoarding all these. I got a handful of Syrian nickel coins the other week. It also makes me want to get nice uncs because the nickel metal and designs look marvelous unc and au.

 

I completley agree. These are beautiful coins that have a lucid but tranquil effect when handling them. I just got some GEM BU in and I love looking at them. I will try to post soon. They do remind me of our own Walking Liberty coins and I hope I can get some more. They are simply beautiful. Great post.

 

Yeah, I don't know how US only collectors can bypass world coins, especially beauts like this. After all, doesn't our classic coinage borrow a lot from some European coinage? I don't know the details but I've heard from time to time that some French designs were borrowed by US designers, etc.

 

Inspiration, as opposed to plagiarism, is fine - a good design that was inspired by another good design is certainly much better than a bad design, inspired or not. It is pretty obvious, for example, that Roty's Sower (semeuse) inspired Weinman's Walking Liberty. Does not mean that US collectors should now start collecting non-US coins, but knowing about such influences cannot hurt either ...

Christian

 

I agree, they are both very beautiful coins, and worthy or any collection. The fact that they can be had for only a portion of the American counterparts makes them all the more attractive. The Swiss and French gold coins are also nice and reasonable if your budget can afford it.

 

I searched for "silver" under World Coins and Paper Money on ebay and most of the results were for Swiss coins. They are a tremendous value. The coins from the 1/2 franc to the 2 franc have basically the same design and have used this design since the 19th Century. Since they're not immediately noticeable, I wonder if you can still find silver in Swiss pocket change (or did they go Euro?)

 

I like the ship anchor design. Shows power

 

Switzerland went from silver to Cu-Ni for circulation coins in 1968. In October 1971 the silver coins ceased to be legal tender, but most of them can still be redeemed. And no, Switzerland is not a European Union member state, nor does it have a monetary agreement with the EU. These days, none of the Swiss collector coins (10 fr bimetallic, 20 fr silver, 50 fr gold) can be had at face.

Christian

 

Love this conversation. All of the designers and sculptors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries understood the iconographic meaning and symbolism developed by the Greeks and Romans. They executed some beautiful coin designs and I agree with previous posts that Swiss and French francs are a bargain compared to their U.S. counterparts.

 

Sapulpa native here.