Cliquer ici pour le texte français.
My collection of coins from french overseas territories
Here is a part of my coin collection, with coins from former countries and territories under French ruling (former colonies, protectorates, territories under mandate, overseas departments etc).
Are also listed a few other countries, according to my whim (Burundi, because it has few coins, or Japan, because I spent some time there).
My french coins are not listed; nor those from Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Luxemburg, Andorra (countries whose coinage is very well known), Democratic Congo (which was under Belgian ruling), etc.
Those neither valued in Francs nor written in French are generally missing from these pages.
Gold coins and those with a ridiculously low mintage are not my cup of tea (too expensive). As coins should be used for paying things, I usually omit non-circular shaped coins.
My main goal with these pages is to have a remote list of the coins I have and those I lack; my second goal is to have these coinages better known.
This list of countries and territories is independant from my opinion about their legality and their rulers.
This site is a work in progress, I hope to add a picture for each coin, when I'll be able to (as links, to keep pages light weighted).
Countries and Territories
- Algeria DZA, Algérie, Algerien, Argelia, Al-Jaza'ir
- Benin BEN, Bénin (formerly Dahomey)
- Burkina Faso BFA (formerly Haute Volta, Upper Volta, Obervolta)
- Burundi BUR
- Cambodia KHM (franc and sen), Cambodge, Kambodscha
- Cameroon CMR, Cameroun, Kamerun, Camerun
- Central Africa CFA (Republic and Empire), Centrafricaine, Zentralafrika
- French Equatorial and Central African States AEF (franc CFA), C.A.S., French Equatorial Africa, Afrique Centrale, Zentralafrikanische Staaten
- Chad TCD, Tchad, Tschad, Ciad
- Cochinchina COC (sapèque and centième), Cochinchine (now a part of Vietnam)
- Colonies Générales CLG, for general use in French colonies
- Comoros COM, Comores, Komoren
- Congo COG (People's Republic, Brazzaville), Kongo
- Dahomey DHY, Dahome (now Benin)
- Djibouti DJI (Côte Française des Somalis, Territoire Français des Afars et des Issas), French Somaliland, Dschibuti, Afar- und Issagebiet, Gibuti
- Equatorial Guinea GNQ (francos CFA), Guinée Equatoriale, Äquatorialguinea, Guinea ecuatorial
- French austral and antarctic Territories ATF, Terres australes et antarctiques Françaises (TAAF), plus Adelie, Crozet
- French Guyana GUF, Guyane
- French Polynesia PYF, Polynésie Française, Französische Polynesien, Tahiti, plus Crescent
- Gabon GAB, Gabun
- Guadeloupe GLP
- Guinea GIN (Conakry), Guinée
- Guinea-Bissau GNB (CFA francs), Guinée Bissau
- Haiti HTI, Haïti
- Indochina IDC, Indochine (sapèque, centième, piastre), see also Vietnam
- Ivory Coast CIV, Côte d'Ivoire, Elfenbeinküste, Costa d'Avorio
- Katanga KAT (now a part of Democratic Congo)
- Laos LAO (cents)
- Lebanon LBN, Liban, Libanon, Lubnan
- Madagascar MDG, Malagasy
- Mali MLI
- Morocco MAR, Maroc, Marokko, Marruecos, Al-Maghrib
- Martinique MTQ
- Mauritania MRT, Mauritanie, Mauritanien, Al-Muritaniya
- Mayotte MYT
- Monaco MCO
- Niger NER
- New Hebrides NHB, Nouvelles Hébrides, Neue Hebriden, Nuevas Hebridas (now Vanuatu)
- New Caledonia NCL, Nouvelle Calédonie, Neue Kaledonien
- Reunion Island REU, Réunion
- Rwanda RWA, Ruanda
- St Barthelemy Island SBT, Saint Barthélémy
- St Martin SMR, island
- St Pierre and Miquelon SPM, Saint Pierre et Miquelon
- Sarre SAR, Saarland (now a part of Germany)
- Senegal SEN, Sénégal
- Syria SYR (under French mandate), Syrie, Syrien, As-Suriya
- Togo TGO
- Tonkin TKN (now a part of Vietnam)
- Tunisia TUN, Tunisie, Tunisien, Tunez, Tunicia, At-Tanusiya
- Vanuatu VUT (formerly New Hebrides)
- Vietnam VNM (in the French Union), see also Indochina
- West African States AOF (franc CFA), W.A.S., Afrique de l'Ouest, Westafrikanische Staaten, Africa del Oeste
Look at the French page for the update date of each country.
Nota: three letter codes after each country name and in links at the left and the bottom of each page come from ISO-3166 alpha-3 (easier to understand than the 2-letter codes) when they exist, or I made them (Dahomey, Indochina ...); I also give the ISO-4217 3-letter symbol for monetary units.
Other countries
Not a part of Francophony but I have some of these coins.
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Catalogues
I tried to give each coin its references according to the three following fine catalogues, which you should acquire:
- Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-present, 2003, Krause Publications, by Chester Krause and Clifford Mishler (KM 34 references for the 2007 edition, KM 31 references for the 2004 edition, or KM 24 for the 1999 edition for 1801-present)
- Monnaies Coloniales Françaises, 1670-1988, 1988, Victor Gadoury editions, par Victor Gadoury et Georges Cousinié (Gad 88 references)
- Monnaies et Jetons des Colonies Françaises, 2007, Victor Gadoury editions, par Jean Lecompte, 2nd edition (Lec 07 references, or Lec 00 references for the 2000 edition)
- Welt-Münzkatalog 20. Jahrhundert, 2005, Battenberg, von Günter Schön und Gerhard Schön, 33rd edition (Schön references)
KM is almost exhaustive for some territories, but not always easy to use (unordered numbers ...);
Schön has a better presentation, it tries to introduce some logic, but it sometimes lacks a few coins;
Gadoury (Victor Gadoury and Georges Cousinié) has two editions, first edition in 1980, second edition, corrected, in 1988; it was extensively rewritten by Jean Lecompte in 2000 (Victor Gadoury editions), and even more in 2007 (Victor Gadoury too), he added a lot to the wonderful work done by Mr. Cousinié and Gadoury, after the books by such fine numismats as Way, Guilloteau and Mazard, but he left out coins from the countries after they achieved independance.
Thanks a lot to the French magazine named Numismatique & Change.
I had the idea of creating this site firstly to have a handy reference to my coins wherever I am, but also to complement these catalogues, which cannot always be as up-to-date as a web site.
Of course, everybody is free to use my lists for non-commercial usage.
Captions
- For each country table, the first column tells whether I have this coin ("oui" or "plus"), or not ("non" or "moins").
- The second column gives the face value of the coin (with F for Franc).
- The next column is the year written on the coin.
- Next comes the mint mark, if any, or the mint shop (or temporarily "acheté" if I bought this coin and am waiting for it).
The French Paris Mint usually strikes coins with a "coin" alignment (the two sides are upside down, with a horizontal axis, like former French franc coins), as opposed to the "medal" alignment (both sides in the same direction, with a vertical axis, like euro coins); if a country or territory uses both alignments, the less frequent one is flagged in this column ("monnaie" is coin, "médaille" is medal).
- Then the grading, according to the French system: B (beau, VG, SGE, B), TB (très beau, F, S, MB), TTB (très très beau, VF, SS, BB), or Sup (superbe, EF, VZ, SPL).
- Then come the references in three catalogues; please tell me my errors.
- Mintage comes next, as reported by the catalogues, or from the reports from Mr. Milhorat in Numismatique et Change (M = millions, rounded). Note that mints usually publish the number of coins they struck in a given year, but not if these coins bear this very year ...
- Then the metal, or Essai for pattern coins.
- Last, some remarks.
No price, because I am not a merchant.
Commemorative coins
These lists contain circulating coins as well as commemorative coins (NCLT, non circulating legal tender). Some think these are not true coins, but medals in disguise. However, they give the artists a better way to express themselves than most circulating coins (which have to be flatter). That's why they are included.
However, neither emergency coins nor tokens nor unusual shapes (rectangle etc).
I listed some references as "essai privé" (private pattern): they are either non official tokens, or official tokens without legal tender. For instance, some recent tokens in "africa" or "CFA" (not Francs), issued by Africamint: they may be "official", but they have no legal tender; as the purpose of a coin is to pay debts, there is no coin without legal tender. I nevertheless included some of them because they are listed by KM.
It could be possible to sort coins according to their status:
- circulating, legal tender, official (most coins)
- non circulating, legal tender, official (aka NCLT)
- non circulating, no legal tender, official (essais, pieforts, "africa")
- non circulating, no legal tender, not official (private patterns)
- circulating, no legal tender, not official (emergency tokens)
- etc.
Forged coins
As I am no professional numismat, there may be false or forged coins in these pages. Indochine for instance is known for its numerous coins with a restruck date. Please forgive me for false or fantasy coins here included, and warn me!
Missing coins
If you have coins not listed hereafter, I'd be happy to add them, provided you send me a photography of the coin (100 to 200 dpi, real size, jpeg or bmp).
All mistakes and errors are mine, thank you for warning me!
Doubles, swapping, buying
I am looking for all coins noted "non" in the following pages.
If you have coins I lack, if you lack coins I have (I have a few extra coins), thank you for emailing me!
Here are some Excel charts of the coins I have to swap.
Thanks to all coin sellers, collectors and enthusiasts who allowed me to bring this collection together (except this Belgian merchant, of course, who refused to sell me a coin I had paid and stole money from me).
A big "thank you" to all those who emailed/will email me with information or error corrections !
Links
Here is a page with some useful links, a work in progress, first version only in French.
Here is a changelog, updated almost regularly.
Contact
My email address: web at ultramarines.info
This site
These pages were created using Notepad, uploaded on 2006/03/13, and updated whenever I can.
These web pages are intentionally simple, pure HTML without any script nor CSS (OK, they are ugly), and static, not using any database. In order to be compatible with most browsers, quickly displayed, and thoroughly indexed by search engines.
(C) P. Raffin
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AEF | AOF | DZA | BEN | BFA | BUR | CMR | KHM | CAF | COC | CLG | COM | COG | CIV | DHY | DJI | FAO |GAB | GLP
GNQ | GIN | GNB | GUF | HTI | IDC | JPN | KAT | LAO | LBN | MDG | MLI | MAR | MTQ | MRT | MYT | MCO | NER | NHB
NCL | PYF | REU | RWA | SBT | SMR | SPM | SAR | SEN | SYR | TCD | ATF | TGO | TKN | TUN | VUT | VNM | accueil | home