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PARIS MINT CREATES NEW MINTMARK.Dick Johnson writes: "Not only did the Monnaie de Paris (Americans call this the Paris Mint) announce their new mintmark at the ANA convention (August 1), show it on the screen during the slide portion of their press briefing, but they also gave out nickel-silver coin-relief medals displaying the new mark to all those in attendance. The Paris Mint always has the best press briefings at the ANA conventions as evidenced by the perpetual shortage of seats. (You've got to get there early - Cliff Mishler from Krause got the last seat this year!) The mark is a lowercase alpha superimposed on the year 2002; "20" falls within the open loop of the letter, "02" following. Their intent, according to the Paris Mint officials, is to progress through the Greek alphabet for each new year. This is a dramatic departure for the Paris Mint, whose heritage of mintmarking goes back to ordinance of March 24, 1832 promulgated by Louis Philippe. The new mark came about because of the new coinage, the new monetary unit, and new coin designs. It was only natural to create a new mintmark. Well done! However, the effect of the euro continues its influence on coins of European countries. Previously the cornucopia had been in use since January 1, 1880. Somewhere in the 1960s the mint added the year of manufacture to the cornucopia edgemark for medals. [Note to future numismatists: do you really want to catalog EVERY year of issue for every time they restocked their shelf supply for all medals with a new date in all these edgemarkings?] The full list of Paris Mint marks are described and illustrated in Emile Beuque, Dictionnaire des Poincons officils français & étrangers, anciens & modernes. For an abbreviated list in English, see Sara Elizabeth Freeman, Medals Relating to Medicine and Allied Sciences in the Numismatic Collection of The Johns Hopkins University, page xii. Next week I'll report on some new coin and medal technology I observed at the New York ANA show."Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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