France: 1 sol 1791AA in a bad state

N#5466

I got for next to nothing in a swap, because of it's state (roughly cleaned with a file or hard brush) but that's how it is, a given horse etc…

w:11.34

d:28.27

t:2.28

The question is, which line does it belong to?

Thanks for your help

I would say pick the last one since it seems to be the most popular. What's a 1st and 2nd semester?

6 months is the length of a semester. The year has two, January to June and July to December, but that you certainly knew. How that relates to the coin I don't know. I have another 1791AA, but it's hidden somewhere, so I haven't found it yet😄

I collect double sols.  The semester is used to indicate which half of the year it was minted for assay purposes.  That's what Robert Vlack states in his book about French  coinage of that era.

Thanks for the information. 

I do not collect those coins actively, but from time to time I get one, and then I'm lost. There's no explication in the “Comments section” and you can't have all the special catalogs for once in a time coin. Somebody really ought to document what's behind the gibberish in each different year line.

That would make us all wiser and maybe more interested in those coins?

You're right -- they can be very complicated.  I'm trying to collect more books and resources to help me decipher all of the different varieties and symbols used on the sols.  Information is really hard to come by, and it's usually contained in some old books that are difficult to obtain.  There's also a ton of counterfeit sols out there.   This adds to the problem of identifying them properly.

Sjoelund

Thanks for the information. 

 

I do not collect those coins actively, but from time to time I get one, and then I'm lost. There's no explication in the “Comments section” and you can't have all the special catalogs for a once in a time coin. Somebody really ought to document what's behind the gibberish in each different year line.

 

That would make us all wiser and maybe more interested in those coins?

I finally found an answer in one of my books that explains how to tell which semester this coin was minted.   Look for the word “LUDOV” on the obverse of your coin.  Then look under the letter “D” in the word “LUDOV”.  If you see a dot underneath the letter “D”, then that is a 2nd semester coin (made in the 2nd half of the year).  If the dot is not there, then it's a 1st semester coin.

2nd Semester version (Dot appears under the letter “D”):

If you want to research it further, this dot is called “point de semestre” or “semester dot”.

You mentioned that your coin was in bad shape.  So I don't know if this will help or not.  Hopefully it will help.

Thanks for that information.

Sorry, I did NOT include the images, and that from me always insisting on sticking to the “rules”.

It has the dot. @TonyCoins I hope you document that in the appropriate places in Numista?

Awesome!  I don't have pictures/documentation for each specific year line for these coins.  But I did submit a request to add the reference book to the new Literature section on Numista.  It was approved and the book itself is now documented as a reference here:  https://en.numista.com/literature/volume.php?id=3464

The book is mainly focused on the sols that made it to the Americas.  But the same information applies to many of the other sols as well.