Foreign Coin Feature : France

[Rubiano99]

French coins from almost every period in history are fairly common in the Netherlands. The three favorite ones I've found were minted during the French Revolution. The two massive coins are two sols. They were minted from bronze that they got from melting down churchbells.

Frankrijk 2.jpg

Frankrijk 4.jpg

Frankrijk 2 sols.jpg

[sweepstick47]

An aluminium 1 Franc coin of Marshall Petain's Vichy Government established 22nd June 1940 until 1945 due to collaboration with Hitler until September 1944 when Petain (and Cabinet) fled to Germany from where they operated as a government in exile until April 1945. Petain was brought back to France then under control of Provisional French Republic and tried for Treason.
He was imprisoned in an island fortress where he died in 1952 age 96.

[Dave8472]

Nice one Eric

Dave

[LuckyB]

I found this French 10 centimes recently and despite it doing that nasty trick of pretending to be a ½ sovereign, I was pleased to find it as any foreign coin (even a relatively modern one) is something different and makes you wonder how it ended up in a middle of a field.

I was surprised how good condition it was in when you think of the poor condition our “gold” coloured coins like the old 3d and current £1 come out of the ground in. So I did a quick bit of research (googling) and found to my surprise they are made of Aluminium Bronze (92% copper, 6% aluminium, 2% nickel). In contrast our recent “gold“ coinage is actually a brass (a copper zinc nickel alloy). It just goes to show the importance of good material selection, I guess the Royal Mint didn’t consider us detectorists! Mind you perhaps they did and were just thinking of those with dodgy hearts!

[LuckyB]

This was a pleasant surprise when it popped out, as I was having a very quiet morning, at first I thought it was a worn 6d but on closer inspection it turned out to be a Louis XIV 4 Sols from the 1670s. Unfortunately it was a bit too worn to get an exact date but you can see the D in the centre on the reverse which indicates the Lyon mint. An early milled is always a welcome visitor and a foreign one just that bit more interesting!

Came in at a clear 40 on some stubble with the Manticore on ATG and recovery 5