Dupré décimes and centimes

Reading the Republican date and the mint letter

These coins carry no Gregorian year but a year number from the Republican calendar. Year 1 began on 22 September 1792, the day the Republic was proclaimed, and each following year started around 22 or 23 September. A coin dated “L'AN 5” was therefore struck between autumn 1796 and summer 1797. A simple rule: add 1791 to the number to get the year in which it ended. Year 4 is 1795-1796, Year 8 is 1799-1800, Year 9 is 1800-1801.

The letter after the date shows the mint. Paris (A) struck the bulk, but about ten mints took part: Metz (AA), Rouen (B), Lyon (D), Geneva (G), Limoges (I), Bordeaux (K), Orléans (R), Nantes (T), Lille (W), plus BB. Geneva, annexed to France in 1798, appears only in Years 8 and 9. The guide to French mints places each of these letters.

On many pieces the date or the letter was altered on the die: “AN 7/5” means a 7 was cut over a 5. This is explained by dies being reused from one year to the next, and sometimes passed between mints, which gives double letters such as A/B or W/A.

Small module, large module and overstrikes

The first series, dated Year 4, was light: 5 g for the 5 centimes, 10 g for the décime, 20 g for the 2 décimes. The public would not take it. From Year 5 the weight of the 5 centimes (10 g) and of the décime (20 g) was doubled, and the 2 décimes was dropped.

Rather than melt the old stock, the mints struck it again. A light 10 g décime weighed the same as a new 5 centimes, so it went back under the 5 centimes dies. A 20 g piece of 2 décimes matched a new décime and became one. The Le Franc catalogue lists these separately as “refrappage” (F.114 for the 5 centimes, F.128 for the décime). On a well-struck example you can still read fragments of the old legend under the new one: an S from “DÉCIMES” above the word “DÉCIME”, for instance.

Before these overstrikes, Paris and Limoges had tried a quicker fix: filing off the figure 2 on the 2 décimes and punching the word “UN” in its place (F.127). The result shows a flattened patch and incuse letters.

The 1 centime avoided all this. It first appears in Year 6, at Paris only, and keeps the same 2 g weight until Year 8.

Varieties and grades

Le Franc records over one hundred and fifty varieties of the large-module 5 centimes alone, and more than seventy for the décime. They come from altered dates, re-cut letters, the size of the figures and small engraving errors. Some dies read “CNIQ” instead of “CINQ”. On the Year 7 centime, collectors separate a large 7, a normal 7 and a small 7.

These coins stayed in circulation until the 1850s, so the great majority grade Good or Fine. As a rule, on the obverse, wear first reaches the hair showing beneath the cap, then the rim of the cap and the folds of drapery on the shoulder. On the reverse, the veins of the oak leaves and the loops of the ribbon go before the lettering.

Copper picks up green or black spots. Do not scrape anything or use any product: bare metal never regains its patina, and a collector spots a rubbed coin at once. Original red colour very rarely survives. See the guides to grading and to cleaning.

Not to be confused with

The 1 centime of 1848 to 1851. The Second Republic brought back Dupré's design for a new 2 g centime struck at Paris. This time the date is Gregorian, “1848” to “1851”. No centimes at all had been struck between Year 8 and 1848.

The Antwerp siege pieces. In 1814 the besieged city, held by Carnot, produced emergency pieces of 5 and 10 centimes. They bear a monogram inside a wreath, not the head of the Republic.

Satirical pieces. Some Dupré décimes were reworked with punches or engraving to carry political slogans or figures. They are not official varieties.

The bronzes of 1852 to 1857. Napoleon III's 5 and 10 centimes, known as the “dog” coins, replaced these coppers. They carry an emperor's portrait: see the page on Napoleon III bronzes. For fakes, the guide to counterfeit coins sets out the basic checks: weight, diameter, edge.

History

The law of 28 Thermidor Year III (15 August 1795) made the franc the monetary unit of France and divided it into décimes and centimes. The first copper coins were entrusted to Augustin Dupré, who also designed the Hercules of the 5 francs silver écus.

The first striking, in Year 4, met with public refusal. Paper money was collapsing at the time: the Directory abandoned the assignat in 1796, then the territorial mandates in 1797. The series resumed in Year 5 with coins twice as heavy, struck in large numbers until Year 9 by most of the mints.

They then stayed in people's pockets for half a century, with no new issues of these denominations under the Consulate and the Empire. The recoinage of old copper launched early in the Second Empire replaced them with bronze pieces. The 1848 centime, also in copper, disappeared with this recoinage. The period is covered on the page about 19th-century French coins.