France, Louis Philippe, pair of uniface brass gilted patterns for unissued 10 Francs (1830), Maz-1

France, Louis Philippe (1830-1849)Pair of Gilted Brass Uniface Pattern coins ("épreuves unifaces bronze doré") of the 10 Francs ND (1830?), Paris Mint, no date or mintmark, underneath portrait signed "Doumard.F", observe and reverse (2). Obv. laureate head left, circular legend LOUI S PHILIPPE I// ROI DES FRANCAIS. Rev. olive wreath encloses 10/ FRANCS/ ESSAI. Ref. Maz.-1083 and Maz-1083b Mazard indicates a rarity factor of R2, but we have not found either any similar uniface pattern examples or any pattern essais in any recent auctions or discussions with experts. To the best of our knowledge, this is most probably the only example known of such attempt to design the Louis Philippe 10 Francs. In 1830, an attempt to replace the Gold 40 Francs was made, however the ordinance of November 8, 1830 instauring a 10 Francs, 50 Francs and 100 Francs, was finally never applied. It is only in 1850 that such 10 gold Francs were finally struck picturing the actual sovereign at the time, Napoleon III. Regardless, a similar design for the Louis Philippe 20 Francs was adopted for the circulating coinage.Extremely rare, 10 Francs uniface observe graded PCGS SP61 and uniface reverse graded PCGS SP62