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Numismatique de L'Assurance


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I guess we should call this "Ian's Armada Collection" :bthumbsup:

Much of the Armada remains out of sight over the horizon. One day i'll hopefully get round to scanning them but for now I only usually scan items when I acquire them. i'll shortly add a few that have just docked.

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Ian -- I think you must be getting close to being able to publish a catalog of jetons like Feuardent (or, more recently, Gadoury).

How many insurance jetons are there, after all? and how many do you own?

plus all your other series...

I am (as always) painfully jealous. That 1904 piece with the steering wheel / anchor /propeller is beautiful.

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The reference book for these is `Numismatique de L'Assurance Francaise' by Raymond Gailhouste. The version i have was printed in 1993 and covers over 1100 different jetons/ medals issued for this industry and its various specialisms from 1670 -1993. There are considerably more when you consider that some were struck in more than one metal, Some assurers only struck one jeton (before disappearing) others have quite a number of different examples over the duration of their existence. Many are scarcer than hen's teeth, some being`reported' as having existed, but no examples known...until one turns up.

 

For me, an interesting subject area and I haven't been keeping tab on how many I have collected to date, but definitely in the '00's for that particular theme.

 

The earliest jeton d'assurance I have is dated 1671 (see below).

 

1034238.jpg

 

Issued in 1671 for the Paris `Chambre Des Assurances' during the reign of Louis XIV. The second known design / issue for this theme, the first being the year previous. Although only in VG (my estimate of the grade), i've not seen any better example (so far!)

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I don't collect beyond 1960, so i'm not up to speed on anything beyond that. I try to stick to before 1900 but i sometimes fAIL.

 

Here's a few more `assurance jetons' from my collection

 

The first was struck for `Le Pilote', a French maritime assurer.

 

988241.jpg

 

The second and third were struck for `Le Neptune' another fairly short lived maritime assurer

 

988244.jpg

 

988245.jpg

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another couple from my collection, this time issued in 1837 by L'Ocean, yet another maritime assurer. The toning on the second is quite beautiful but unfortunately not picked up by the scanner. I'll dig this one out and re-scan to see if my skills have improved any since producing this particular image.

 

Oh yes,...the first jeton was withdrawn shortly after issue after protests were raised. The second die used provided Neptune with some degree of modesty. :)

 

926817.jpg

 

926200.jpg

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Interesting jetons. The modesty thing surprises me given the time and area this was issued.

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  • 1 month later...

Firstly, I'm not sure whether the weights are all over the place or if the people weighing them are all over the place.....or both.

 

I'm not aware of any particular note as to the weights for this particular jeton and none of my references make mention of it. However, what I can tell you is that the jeton type was probably struck in batches at the mint as required by the company then held in stock at the company for yearly distribution (between 1845 and 1880 (+ a few years)

 

The planchets bear a very small incused edge mark along with the word `argent'. The Edge mark denotes the period in which it was struck, for example:

 

`main indicatrice' - a hand with a finger pointing (1845 - 60)

`abeille' - a bee (1860 - 80)

`corne' - a cornucopia (1880 +)

 

You will definitely need some means of magnification to tell which is which....so go have a look. That wil give you an indication as to roughly when the jeton was struck.

 

next....there are three main variants for this jeton type, one with a slightly longer legend obverse and a stubbier font type than the one you have (it was struck between 1845 -1880+)....the type you have (struck between 1860 -80+) and the third which misses out the word `Humaine' in the reverse legend (struck 1880+) - not an error btw. All have the same date obverse (23rd May 1830)

 

So, the first type could have any one of the three different edge marks I have mentioned; the second type (yours) could have either the bee or cornucopia edge marks; the third, only the cornucopia edge mark). So, plenty different types to collect and should be relatively easy to do so if you were so inclined :)

I suspect that there would be some variation in the weights of the planchets used, one type to the next and one period of time to the next. I don't know for sure, but I imagine that the blank planchets were produced en masse and held in stock by `La Medaille' (the aspect of the Paris mint responsible for production of medals and jetons) in readiness for any particular strike run. As such it may well be that, if new stock was produced, there could be weight differences arising (and minute adjustments made determined by cost acceptability to the `client'. I am aware of a few jeton types where this is actually the case, and also where a very slight change to the actual silver content of the planchet has been made at the mint (1880's - early 1900's; often, but not always denoted by adding `1' before the word `argent' on the edge).

 

Not sure if that answers your question or creates even more.... but hope it helps in any event :)

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Thanks Ian. Mine has the corne mark and weighs in at 27 gr, so quite a bit heavier than the average. You have incidentally cleared up another of my niggling thoughts. I have a few medals stamped La Medaille, one even has the address, but I could never work out the connection to the Mint. I'm still wondering whether to carry on collecting these jetons, but a rather pretty Compagnie Generale Transatlantique has just come up for sale so I'm probably hooked.

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  • 2 weeks later...

a few more from my collection

 

This one is a nice original jeton engraved by Jean Bertrand Andrieu and struck in 1816 for the Compagnie D'Assurance Du Havre,

 

962446.jpg

 

This one was struck in 1836 for the maritime assurer `Havraise et Parisienne'.

 

992132.jpg

 

This one struck 1836 for the `Union des Ports', another maritime assurer.

 

1022372.jpg

 

 

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