Fellow collectors and numismatists,

French monetary essays are attracting growing interest from collectors and investors around the world, and this is reflected by increasingly high prices, with some gold essays achieving six-figure record prices.

The reference catalogs for the field of modern French essays are somewhat old. Victor Guilloteau's work dates from 1942, Mazard's from 1965 and 1969, and Victor Gadoury's from 1989. The most recent work by Michel Taillard & Michel Arnaud (2014) covers the last period of 1870 to 2001.

In addition, there are important monetary archives that have not been exploited by the authors of these catalogs. Two recent books, Le Franc les Monnaies les Archives (2019) and Le Franc d'Augustin Dupré of which Philippe Théret is the principal author, shows the wealth of the information contained in the archives.

The authors, Michel Taillard and Philippe Théret have therefore decided to join forces to write three books covering the period 1803-1870, up to the period covered by Mr. Taillard and Mr. Arnaud's 2014 book. The three books will be:

The authors need financial support to realize these three works. For this, an association, the Amis des Auteurs Numismates (Friends of Numismatic Authors) is in the process of being created, and aims to unite the patrons, donators and authors.

The association, in addition to collecting the funds, will oversee the project and guarantee the refunding of the patrons and subscribers in case of the non-completion of the project.

The association and the authors are at your disposal for any question or to organize a meeting.

Authors' publications

Michel Taillard is the main author of Essais Monétaires & Piéforts français 1870-2001 (2014). Philippe Théret is the main author of Le Franc, les Monnaies, les Archives (2019) and Le Franc d'Augustin Dupré (2021). He is contributor to the Le Franc catalogs since 2007 and author of more than 50 numismatic articles since 2005.