A class of coins known as pieforts offers a different kind of collecting option for the world coin collector.
These coins carry designs found on their lighter, thinner counterparts, but in thick versions.
Pieforts, simply, are twice the coin. They have a long and dual history, and remain popular today.
What are they?
A piefort (French spelling: piedfort) is a coin that is struck "with ordinary dies on an unusually thick planchet. It is not intended for circulation and is therefore distinct from the dump, a thick coin struck for commercial use," according to The Macmillan Encyclopedic Dictionary of Numismatics by Richard Doty.
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THE PARIS MINT issued an Uncirculated 1986 silver 100-franc coin in a piefort version commemorating the centennial of the Statue of Liberty.
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The first appearance of pieforts is uncertain. Doty states that minters have produced pieforts since the late 13th century, in Bohemia, France, Germany, and to a lesser degree England.
Dictionary of Numismatic Names by Albert Frey suggests a slightly earlier origin, in the 12th century. Frey writes, "The Dickgroschen of Prague are so termed, and in the French series Pieforts of billon occur as early as the reign of Louis VII (1137-1180), while those of silver and gold from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries are frequently met with."
Coin World reported in the Aug. 9, 1978, issue that piefort coins originated as a response to the debased French coinage issued during the Hundred Years' War (1337 to 1453). "King John the Good ordered double-thick ‘model coins' struck and sent to all royal Mints as a standard of the quality expected in the coinage of the kingdom."
What's the purpose?
Their original purpose is unclear. While Frey states that some pieforts undoubtedly circulated as money, they do not seem to have been primarily designed to do so. Their weights bear no logical relationship to other coins.
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Images courtesy of HeritageAuctions.com. COLOMBIA STRUCK THIS 1913 Proof 50-centavo piefort that was once part of the King Farouk collection. Numismatic Guaranty Corp. graded it Proof 63.
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Doty provides an example of a penny-sized English piefort of the reign of Edward I (ruled 1272 to 1307) struck with dies identical or similar to those used for ordinary pennies, but that weighed three times as much as a normal penny. An argument could be made that the coin was intended to circulate as a threepence, Doty writes, but the known pieforts of Edward's reign don't fit that pattern, Doty said.
"It seems, then, pieforts were not originally intended as circulating multiples of regular coins," Doty writes. "Were they minted as trial pieces or die proofs, struck to see how the finished work would look? Again, probably not."
Doty said that if the intent was to make a trial strike, the thickness wasn't important and a thinner planchet would "probably give a truer impression of the dies."
Doty cites "noted numismatist" L.A. Lawrence as generating a reasonable supposition of their purpose. Lawrence "convincingly argued that English pieforts at least were designed as models for circulating coins: a master engraver would create two dies as prototypes, and use them to strike pieforts," Doty wrote.
The master engraver could verify that the design was as he wished, and would ship the prototypes to the die workshops for engravers to copy.
"Lawrence's theory is a sound explanation for the coins' thickness: no one at a mint would confuse them with ordinary coins, and they would be readily available when new dies are needed, as thick prototypes would be less easily lost than thin ones."
Doty examines a 1607 double tournois French copper coin that is known as a piefort. The piefort weighs 13.7 grams, measures 21.5 millimeters in diameter and is 5 millimeters thick. The circulation version weighs slightly less than 3 grams, measures 21 millimeters in diameter and is just 1.3 millimeters thick. "The weight ratio alone should convince us that the piefort was not meant to circulate, for 3 grams bears no discernible relationship to 13.7 [grams]."
Furthering the theory of these pieforts as models is the fact that "once prototypes had been struck from the model dies, it was judicious to use those dies for ordinary coinage."
Modern pieforts
In more recent times, pieforts have taken on other characteristics and a different meaning.
According to Doty, "Its modern uses emphasize its role as a pattern, with medallic overtones."
An example of this is the United States' only piefort-style pattern, a 1907 Saint-Gaudens, Roman Numerals, High Relief $20 double eagle struck on a planchet the diameter of a $10 eagle, but twice the thickness. Just two examples survive of the original production, both preserved in the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution. An example of the pattern was on display during the American Numismatic Association World's Fair of Money in Milwaukee Aug. 8 to Aug. 12.
Many Latin American nations issued piefort pattern pieces in the 19th and 20th centuries, among them Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Peru.
However, France and the United Kingdom have continued the piefort tradition, issuing for collectors piedfort versions of commemorative coins, usually in precious metal versions.
"The French actively continue the piedfort-as-pattern tradition; but many of theirs are actually closer to noncirculating legal tender coins, directed at the collector, than they are to patterns," Doty wrote in 1982.
Since Doty's book appeared, the French have continued to produce and sell piedforts, mainly the NCLT coins.
Perhaps the most widely known is the 1986 silver 100-franc coin from France marking the centennial of the Statue of Liberty. The Monnaie de Paris (the French Mint) issued piedfort versions of the Uncirculated .900 fine silver coin, weighing 30 grams instead of 15 grams.
The United Kingdom also has a strong history of issuing piedfort versions of coinage. It has issued Proof silver piedforts of the "round pound" coins since they made their debut in 1983, and The Royal Mint strikes Proof silver piedforts for its annual commemorative designs.
Nations don't have to have a long history of issuing pieforts to join the act. In 1996, the Royal Canadian Mint issued a Proof piefort silver-gold ringed bimetallic $2 coin, the first North American piefort coin offered to collectors.
The Canadian piefort – twice the thickness of a normal $2 coin – is also the first ringed bimetallic piefort coin struck anywhere.
The outer ring of the piefort is composed of .925 fine silver. The inner core is composed of .925 fine silver plated with .999 fine gold. The coin weighs 25 grams, measures 28 millimeters in diameter and is 4.5 millimeters thick.
Other nations, many with a connection to the British Commonwealth, have issued piefort coins.
Bermuda issued a piefort gold $250 coin in 1981 marking the wedding of Lady Diana and Prince Charles.
In 1995, Australia issued a silver $10 coin depicting a numbat (a small marsupial unique to Western Australia), in a piefort version.
New Zealand in 1993 issued a piefort version of a $5 coin marking the 25th anniversary of the introduction of decimal currency into New Zealand.
In the mid-1990s, three British crown dependencies – the Falkland Islands, Guernsey and St. Helena – all issued piefort coins in different commemorative coin programs with various designs.
Singapore, once under British rule, issued a series of 12 Chinese Lunar Year coins, beginning with 1993. Each year, the Proof .999 fine silver coin was available in a piefort version.
The list of piefort-issuing nations, mainly of NCLT coins, includes China, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Monaco, Mongolia, the Philippines and the Sudan.
This is by no means a thorough exploration of all the nations that have issued piefort coins. An enthusiastic collector could surely find numerous examples to build a collection around.
Twice the coin, pieforts just may also be twice the fun.
