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How to evaluate french old medals?


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I am trying to understand how to evaluate french medals from Feuardent catalogue (18-19 centuries). I see plenty different medals on Ebay.fr for sale but I do not really understand why some medals are sold for 100 Euros but other are valued for 10. I tried reviewing Feuardent and Gadoury catalogues but I do not understand how they know how much medals worth. I cannot find mintage quantity of the medals, it might help to understand the issue. Any suggestions? May be I need to review other catalogues?

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I am trying to understand how to evaluate french medals from Feuardent catalogue (18-19 centuries). I see plenty different medals on Ebay.fr for sale but I do not really understand why some medals are sold for 100 Euros but other are valued for 10. I tried reviewing Feuardent and Gadoury catalogues but I do not understand how they know how much medals worth. I cannot find mintage quantity of the medals, it might help to understand the issue. Any suggestions? May be I need to review other catalogues?

 

I suggest as a starting point you visit the site at www.CGB.fr and look at their section on jetons.

 

 

Consider why it is that some coins are valued in the '000's of euro / dollars/ pounds, and some in the value of cents. The same principles apply.

 

As with all things, price is a combination of a) relative scarcity B) relative demand from collectors at any given moment in time c)the over all condition of the item in question...and d) what the seller is actually prepared to sell the item for.. their bottom line (if you trouble to ask them).

 

Of course, catalogues give a perception of the relative `demand' / `value' at the time ofs publishing, but this fluctuates along with money supply (or lack of).

 

you pays your money....you takes your choice. :)

 

Ian

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Thanks, Ian, for answering. May be I did not express myself correctly, my question is not about "why" but how/where can I find scarcity, demand etc? As you correctly pointed out catalogues give a perception. If I want to buy a scarce US dollar - I will probably have plenty of info about it, it is not difficult to find out in catalogues/books (plus it is easy to find previous sales of the same dollar and know price people paid for) but french medals - I even cannot find a good book/catalogue to read about them (I speak French as well). I spent too much time trying to find out reliable books/catalogues about french medals but nothing found so far. Thanks for the site, will check it out for sure.

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Thanks, Ian, for answering. May be I did not express myself correctly, my question is not about "why" but how/where can I find scarcity, demand etc? As you correctly pointed out catalogues give a perception. If I want to buy a scarce US dollar - I will probably have plenty of info about it, it is not difficult to find out in catalogues/books (plus it is easy to find previous sales of the same dollar and know price people paid for) but french medals - I even cannot find a good book/catalogue to read about them (I speak French as well). I spent too much time trying to find out reliable books/catalogues about french medals but nothing found so far. Thanks for the site, will check it out for sure.

 

the more obscure the areas of collecting you get into, the more there is a need to do your own research......and /or pay a hefty price for the available literature. For me, the `bibles' relating to french jetons are Feuardent (for scope) , Mitchiner (for detail, but not as comprehensive as it perhaps should be), Gadoury (commercial) , and CGB (commercial and usually very good background detail to the individual jetons and legends). These references are only the springboards for collecting and researching the more specialist or rather `specific' collecting spheres> For example, the various military jetons; the many and varied royal administrations; trades / merchant guilds; banking and assurances; professions such as the judiciary, medicine; nobles......etc etc. The old maxim `buy the book before you buy the coin' (or jeton) will always serve you well.

 

Happy collecting!

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the more obscure the areas of collecting you get into, the more there is a need to do your own research......and /or pay a hefty price for the available literature. For me, the `bibles' relating to french jetons are Feuardent (for scope) , Mitchiner (for detail, but not as comprehensive as it perhaps should be), Gadoury (commercial) , and CGB (commercial and usually very good background detail to the individual jetons and legends). These references are only the springboards for collecting and researching the more specialist or rather `specific' collecting spheres> For example, the various military jetons; the many and varied royal administrations; trades / merchant guilds; banking and assurances; professions such as the judiciary, medicine; nobles......etc etc. The old maxim `buy the book before you buy the coin' (or jeton) will always serve you well.

 

Happy collecting!

Thanks!!! :bthumbsup:

Some questions

1.When you say you use CGB as a point of reference, can you recommend the book(s) you use? They have plenty of books about jetons on their site , but I do not want to buy just a book.

2.What do you think about Corpus du Jetonophile?

3.Who is Mitchiner? I have never heard about him(or her? or them?) and could not find anything valuable in the net. Any book/catalogue recommendations?

4.I know that french medals/jetons are rated C to R (C1 is very common and R5 is very scarce, 1 or 2 exemplars exist).Where can I get this info about medals? Which book(s) has it?

 

Thanks in advance for answering.

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Thanks!!! :bthumbsup:

Some questions

1.When you say you use CGB as a point of reference, can you recommend the book(s) you use? They have plenty of books about jetons on their site , but I do not want to buy just a book.

2.What do you think about Corpus du Jetonophile?

3.Who is Mitchiner? I have never heard about him(or her? or them?) and could not find anything valuable in the net. Any book/catalogue recommendations?

4.I know that french medals/jetons are rated C to R (C1 is very common and R5 is very scarce, 1 or 2 exemplars exist).Where can I get this info about medals? Which book(s) has it?

 

Thanks in advance for answering.

 

1. I use their online auction catalogues. They are a real wealth of info. I now have hard copies of all but the first three, so I'm a less frequent visitor

2. Will have to look closer before commenting. Will get back to you though.

3. Michael Mitchiner. he has written three hefty volumes on the subject of jetons (in English). I have the first two vols. The first covers the mediaeval period and Nuremberg type jetons. The second covers the Lowlands and France. The third covers English jetons. They cost about £80 -£100 each. I'm not sure whether or not they are still in print but try Amazon. You might also want to try a google search of `Mitchiner, Jetons' Vol 2 is the one I use the most.

4. I'm not sure I can help you with this. I think these things are all very arbitrary and rely on the information available to the author. How rare is a coin that hasn't been catalogued? if it isn't in the catalogue is it rare, really rare, really really really rare....or just `overlooked'?

 

Mitchiner will give you detail and sources of reference material backing up the data he provides.

 

cheers

 

Ian

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