Written by the Maison Or & Bijoux Le Havre team · updated
| Country | France |
|---|---|
| Metal | Bronze (95% copper, 4% tin, 1% zinc) |
| Weight and diameter | 1 centime: 1 g, 15 mm; 2 centimes: 2 g, 20 mm; 5 centimes: 5 g, 25 mm; 10 centimes: 10 g, 30 mm |
| Years struck | Bare head: 1852 (10 centimes only), then 1853 to 1857; laureate head: 1861 to 1865 for the 5 and 10 centimes, 1861, 1862 and 1870 for the 1 centime, 1861 for the 2 centimes (Le Franc) |
| Mints, bare head | A (Paris), B (Rouen), BB (Strasbourg), D (Lyon), K (Bordeaux), MA (Marseille), W (Lille) |
| Mints, laureate head | A, BB and K only |
| Total mintage 1853-1857 | About 66.8 million 1 centime, 58 million 2 centimes, 414 million 5 centimes and 258.8 million 10 centimes |
| Edge | Plain |
| References | Le Franc F.102 and F.103 (1 c), F.107 and F.108 (2 c), F.116 and F.117 (5 c), F.133 and F.134 (10 c); Gadoury 103, 152 and 248; KM 771, 775 and 776 |
These small brown coins turn up in almost every drawer: an emperor in profile facing left, an eagle with spread wings on the back, and the words “EMPIRE FRANÇAIS”. They were born of the great melt-down of old copper sous ordered in 1852, and hundreds of millions of them stayed in use well into the twentieth century. The word “chien” (dog) that often appears in their descriptions refers to a tiny detail, and you soon learn to spot it.
Head of Napoleon III facing left, bare from 1852 to 1857 and wreathed in laurel from 1861. Circular legend “NAPOLEON III EMPEREUR” with the date. Below the neck is the signature BARRE, flanked by two small symbols: on the left the Chief Engraver's mark, on the right the mint's mark.
Imperial eagle standing facing on a thunderbolt, wings spread, head turned right. Legend “EMPIRE FRANÇAIS” and the denomination between two stars: “UN CENTIME”, “DEUX CENTIMES”, “CINQ CENTIMES” or “DIX CENTIMES”. The mint letter sits below the eagle.
One line per useful combination: the known Rouen mintages, the dates the Le Franc catalogue ranks among the hardest to find, and the landmarks of the laureate head. Read the date first, then the letter under the eagle: on these coins it is the mint that separates two pieces of the same year.
| Year | Coin | Mint | Mintage | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1852 | 10 c | A | 642,898 | Only 1852 date, struck in Paris alone |
| 1853 | 1 c | B | n/a | An example is held by the Musée Carnavalet |
| 1853 | 2 c | B | 538,580 | Small mintage of the scarcest denomination |
| 1853 | 5 c | B | 4,589,667 | 4,424,000 according to Krause |
| 1853 | 10 c | B | 3,718,711 | Rouen's first year |
| 1853 | 10 c | K | n/a | Two varieties, one much harder to find |
| 1854 | 1 c | B | n/a | One of the hardest dates of the centime |
| 1854 | 10 c | B | 7,975,216 | 8,065,000 according to Krause |
| 1855 | 2, 5 and 10 c | B | n/a | Two varieties listed for each coin |
| 1855 | 2 c | D | n/a | Eight varieties listed, several of them rare |
| 1856 | 1 c | D and MA | n/a | Hard dates of the centime |
| 1856 | 2 c | B | 4,461,561 | Common date |
| 1856 | 10 c | B | 11,493,357 | Highest Rouen mintage recorded |
| 1857 | 1, 2, 5 and 10 c | B | n/a | Last coins struck at Rouen |
| 1857 | 1 c | D | n/a | Hard date of the centime |
| 1861 | 1, 2, 5 and 10 c | A, BB, K | n/a | First laureate head; the only 2 centimes date listed by Le Franc |
| 1861 | 5 and 10 c | E | n/a | Patterns, for specialist collections |
| 1865 | 5 and 10 c | A, BB | n/a | Last laureate year for these two coins |
| 1870 | 1 c | A | n/a | Last bronze coin of the Second Empire |
Mintages from Le Franc, as quoted by Coinvarieties; 1856 B (10 c) cross-checked with CGB, 1852 A with the Gadoury reference. The harder dates are those the Le Franc catalogue prices highest. “n/a”: no figure found in the sources consulted. Years and mints not listed here had ordinary mintages.
In catalogues and sale lists you will read “10 centimes 1855 A chien” or “5 centimes 1855 ancre”. The word points to the symbol to the left of the BARRE signature, under the emperor's neck. Until 1855 it is a dog's head, a greyhound's head to be precise according to the Musée Carnavalet records: the mark of Jacques-Jean Barre, Chief Engraver. His son Albert-Désiré took over in 1855 and used an anchor. So every coin from 1852 to 1854 carries the dog, every coin from 1856 and 1857 the anchor, and 1855 has both.
So the word does not refer to the eagle on the reverse. Remember the privy mark: it is what the coins are sorted by.
To the right of the signature is the mint's symbol: a hand for Paris, a lion for Lyon, a hammer for Rouen, described by the Musée Carnavalet as a crossed pick and sledgehammer. Together with the letter under the eagle, it confirms where a coin was struck when the letter is worn. The guide to French mints lists the other letters.
In the early 1850s, France's small change was a jumble of liards, sous and copper centimes, some older than the Revolution. The law of 6 May 1852 ordered them withdrawn and replaced by a light, accurately sized bronze coinage: one gram per centime, from 1 gram for the centime to 10 grams for the ten.
To melt and restrike such volumes, the authorities did not rely on Paris, Strasbourg and Bordeaux alone. They brought Lille, Marseille, Lyon and Rouen back into service. The 10 centimes opened the series in 1852, in Paris only; all four coins then came from seven mints between 1853 and 1857. The 5 and 10 centimes dominate: between them, over 670 million pieces in those years.
Striking stopped in 1857 and resumed in 1861 with the laureate head, at just three mints: A, BB and K. The mints reopened for the recoinage had by then ceased work. These bronzes stayed in use into the twentieth century; Coinvarieties states that the 10 centimes of this type were demonetised in 1935. The period is covered on the page on nineteenth-century French coins; the centimes and décimes of the Revolution have their own page on the Dupré décimes and centimes.
1855, the double year. The change of engraver happened within the year. For several mints, Le Franc lists two numbers for the same date, and as many as eight for the Lyon 2 centimes. In Paris, the two 10 centimes numbers are the dog and the anchor. Check the left-hand symbol before drawing conclusions.
Satirical pieces. After Sedan, in 1870 and 1871, ordinary bronzes were re-engraved by hand: a spiked helmet on the emperor's head, the eagle turned into a bat or an owl, sometimes a pig's profile. The engraving is deep and uneven, and the original date can still be read. These are not mint varieties but period objects, collected separately.
The Lille visit. Medal-pieces the size of a 10 centimes, dated 1853, commemorate the Emperor and Empress's visit to the Lille stock exchange in September 1853. According to Coinvarieties, about a thousand were struck, in bronze, silver and gold.
Patterns. Le Franc records patterns of the laureate head dated 1861 and 1868, and the Musée Carnavalet holds a gold pattern of a 10 centimes dated 1854.
Circulating forgeries are rare on such small coins; the guide to spotting fakes gives the basic checks.
These coins were used every day for decades, and most turn up in Fine or Very Good condition. As a rule, on the obverse, wear first attacks the hair above the ear, then the moustache and goatee. On the laureate head, the leaves of the wreath lose their veins before merging into the hair. On the reverse, look at the breast feathers of the eagle and the zigzags of the thunderbolt: crisp on a Very Fine coin, they become a smooth mass on a worn one.
Bronze adds a test that gold does not have: colour. An uncirculated coin keeps an orange-red tone that turns red and brown, then brown, with time. American grading services record these stages as RD, RB and BN. A coin with full original red is the exception.
Watch also for verdigris and black corrosion spots, common on coins found in the ground. Do not rub them or soak them in vinegar: a stripped bronze takes on an even pink colour that any numismatist spots at once. The guide on cleaning coins explains why, and the guide to grades describes each level.
The Rouen mint, letter B, struck all four bare-head bronzes, 1, 2, 5 and 10 centimes, in every year from 1853 to 1857: the Le Franc catalogue lists at least one B number for each of these combinations. It struck neither the 1852 10 centimes, which was Paris-only, nor any laureate head. Its coins are recognised by the B under the eagle and, on the obverse, the small hammer, or crossed pick and sledgehammer, to the right of the signature. They are the last coins struck in Normandy: no coin dated after 1857 bears the letter B; its story is told on the Rouen mint page, and you can have the letters on your coins read during a free appraisal in Le Havre.
The word refers to the small dog's head, or greyhound's head, under the emperor's neck to the left of the BARRE signature. It is the mark of the engraver Jacques-Jean Barre, used until 1855. After him, his son signed with an anchor.
Yes, if it is a bare head dated 1853 to 1857. Check for the small hammer, or crossed pick and sledgehammer, to the right of the signature on the obverse. No laureate head was struck at Rouen: on that type, look under a magnifier to see whether it is in fact a BB.
A bronze coin that circulated for decades loses metal through friction, and corrosion removes more. A worn example can fall well below the standard weight without being a fake.
That year two engravers followed one another, and Le Franc often lists two varieties for the same date and mint. In Paris they are the dog and the anchor, the anchor being the more common. Depending on the mint, one of the varieties is harder to find. Condition matters as much as the variety.