If you have a 20 franc gold Marianne Coq type coin in your drawers, it may be a copy. “From 1951 to 1960, illegally, and in the greatest secrecy, the Minister of Finance, with the approval of the Bank of France, had copies of gold coins manufactured and distributed,” explained to West France Yannick Colleu, specialist in precious metals and author of the work The Gold of the French.
This institutional deception was allegedly launched at the end of the Second World War, when France was facing significant financial difficulties. “We had very little gold left at the end of the war, everything was melted down to buy ammunition,” said Yannick Colleu. The French State had also taken out two loans in 1952 and 1954, which were indexed respectively to the value of the Napoleon's gold, a 20 franc gold coin.
37.5 million copies
In order to stabilize the gold market, the Minister of Finance is said to have proposed an unconventional solution. “We took the identical designs from the 20 franc coins minted from 1907 to 1914, of the “rooster” type and demonetized in 1926. Then we put them back into circulation without saying anything.”
In total, 37.5 million “fake” coins of this type were put into circulation, without informing the population. “The governor reports to the Bank of France so that it can produce fake demonetized currencies, there is not even a decree as is usually the norm,” explains Yannick Colleu. It’s not even mentioned in the annual report of the Administration of Coins and Medals.”
Lower gold content
Beyond its illegal nature and the secrecy surrounding it, this solution would also have harmed the French regarding the gold content of these coins. “A 20-franc coin was issued at a weight of 5.8065 g of fine gold while copies were requested at a weight of 5.789 g of fine per coin,” says the expert, who thus estimates that the State would have thus saved 654 kg of gold out of the 217 tonnes of gold put into circulation. According to him, the difference is also visible to the naked eye, the copies having a slightly redder color than the originals.
According to Yannick Colleu, the owners of these coins even find themselves doubly losers, due to their unfavorable taxation. “These coins are not currencies, but tokens, and should therefore be exempt up to €5,000 on resale,” he considers. But today, the tax authorities apply the 11.5% tax on the sale price as if it were real money.”
