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1 ECU - Bergerac
| Issuer | Les Commerçants Bergeracois |
|---|---|
| Year | 1993 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Milled |
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| Obverse description | Facing left bust of Cyrano de Bergerac in the central field, depicted with his characteristic large nose and wearing a period costume with flowing cravat, juxtaposed to the right with a detailed architectural rendering of a historic Bergerac building. The design is engraved by Jean Louis Leclair. A beaded border frames the inner field, with the curved legend SEMAINE EUROPEENNE DE L'ECU arcing along the upper periphery and DU 1ER AU 10 AVRIL 1993 along the lower periphery. |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | SEMAINE EUROPEENNE DE L'ECU DU 1ER AU 10 AVRIL 1993 |
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| Additional information |
Bergerac's merchant association issued this piece in 1993 as part of the brief wave of local trade tokens that swept through French towns following the 1992 Maastricht Treaty — a quiet commercial protest, or at minimum a nostalgic gesture, against the approaching single currency. The ECU denomination was deliberately ironic: the European Currency Unit was itself named after the medieval French écu, so these civic issues were simultaneously invoking local identity and the supranational framework threatening to erase it.
The Dordogne region's merchant-backed pieces from this period were privately minted and saw genuine if limited local circulation among participating shops.