1978 France 50 Francs Silver KM# 941.1

While poking around eBay recently, I saw a lovely French coin for sale. Many vendors had it at a higher price, but I found one person who offered it cheaper and decided to snag it for my collection!

The piece is so very shiny, I had trouble getting photos to show the detail clearly, so the below photos are from the vendor's listing on eBay and shows the detail of the coin more clearly than I could capture it.

^{image source: PrincetonCoin on eBay}

The obverse (front) features a wreath with the denomination "50 FRANCS" in the center, "RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE" around the top and the year of minting at the bottom. The reverse (back) features the French motto "LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ" (which means: "Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood") across the top and the last name of the desiger/engraver (Augustin Dupré) at the bottom. The three figures in the center represent the hero Hercules, with Liberty on one side of him and Equality on the other.

Various glyphs are inscribed around the thin edge of the coin, including stars, diamonds, hearts, a caduceus (for health), a drafting /carpentry compass, a hammer (for industry), a fist (for strength), and a couple others I can't quite determine. These symbols can clearly be seen in the excellent photos on MySilverCoins.blogspot.com

NGCcoin lists this coin as being 90.0% silver, although APMEX lists it as only 86.82% silver. I am not sure why the discrepancy exists, as other sites concur about the 90.0% silver content. MySilverCoins.blogspot.com calls attention to the fact that this 30.0-gram–90.0% silver coin contains more silver than a 26.73-gram–90.0% Morgan Silver Dollar, and was cheaper than most vendors' prices on Morgans. What a win-win! As such, I will definitely be looking for more of these in the future!