CRH 8/29/2013 : Foreign French in Dime Rolls!

I have been having sort of a drought of coin roll hunting opportunities the last few days and finally had a chance to hit up one of my source banks for some rolled dimes, my old standby! It's been a while since I've hunted dimes.

I tore through the 50 machine-wrapped coin rolls (MWRs) but didn't hit any silver coins. I did come across two out of the ordinary 1941 coins, though. The most interesting part is that they were in different rolls. I got pretty excited since even much of the non-US coinage from that era was made with silver, but it wasn't to be.

Though they are very pretty, these 50 centimes coins from France are only made of a bronze-aluminum alloy. They are the French equivalent of the half dollar, but they're about the size of a US dime (50 centimes diameter is 18mm compared to the 17.91mm of the US dime).

There were over 82 million of them minted for France in 1941, but it seems like they can be sold for more like $1 on the internet! Some quick research shows that there are many die varieties out for these.

Obverses of the 2 French 1941 50 Centimes coins found Coin Roll Hunting

Reverses of the 2 French 1941 50 Centimes coins found Coin Roll Hunting