BOOK REVIEW: LE MONNAYAGE ET LES MONNAIES FAUTÉES 1780-2009

CHORT, Jean-Claude. Le monnayage et les monnaies fautées 1780-2009, 1st ed. Monaco: Éditions Victor Gadoury, 2009. [French language, fully illustrated in colour, 15 x 21 cm, 432 pages, hardbound (ISBN 2-906602-37-X), €39]

Chort's Le monnayage et les monnaies fautées 1780-2009 (The coining process and error coins 1780-2009) is quite simply an outstanding book!

Jean-Claude Chort's 35-year passion for error coins is evident is this well-organized and well-documented book. While focusing on French coinage from 1780 to 2009, the information contained in this unique document can easily be applied to all error coins, regardless of their origin.

Chort begins by explaining the coining process from antiquity to today, since one must really understand this process to determine when and what went wrong to create the error coin. Then he proceeds — and this is really the meat, the most important part on this book — into the classification aspects. Indeed, Chort has organized the various errors into four main categories (die/collar; blank/planchet; mounting, adjustment, and feeding; and strike) that are in turn divided into subcategories and sub subcategories. For example:

• 1 - die/collar
• 2 - blank/planchet
  • 1 - laminating error
  • 2 - blanking error
    • 1 - crescent-shaped
    • 2 - ellipsoidal
    • 3 - sheet edge
    • 4 - unpierced Lindauer and État français
    • 5 - off-centre hole
    • 6 - double hole
    • 7 - doubled-cut ring
    • 8 - off-centre ring
    • 9 - cut ring
  • 3 - assembly error
  • 4 - plating error
  • 5 - faulty copper plating
  • 6 - metal or alloy problem
• 3 - mounting, adjustment, and feeding
• 4 - strike

So, a coin described as an error code "223" is a coin struck on a blank that came from the edge of a sheet of metal. But Chort was not satisfied with just organizing the various types of error, he explains each sub subcategory using diagrams (that show, for example, how the planchet would have been positioned between the dies) and photos (with enlargements) of actual error pieces.

Following this important chapter he cautions the readers about, and helps them identify, tampered pieces ("false errors"). Finally, he lists various error French pieces and gives an approximate value for each type of error.

This book is an absolute MUST for anyone interested in error pieces or in the coining process. It is highly recommended.

For more information or to order, please visit the Éditions Victor Gadoury's website at www.gadoury.com .

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