5 Centimes - Willem III

Features

Issuer	Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
Grand duke	William III (1849-1890)
Type	Standard circulation coins
Years	1854-1870
Value	5 Centimes (0.05 LUF)
Currency	Franc (1854-2001)
Composition	Bronze
Weight	5 g
Diameter	25.24 mm
Thickness	1.38 mm
Shape	Round
Technique	Milled
Orientation	Coin alignment ↑↓
Demonetized	17 August 1901
Number	N# 2998
References	L# 265 Romain Probst; 2003. Prifix: catalogue illustré des monnaies luxembourgeoises (1026 - 2001). Banque du Timbre et Lux-Numis, Luxembourg, Luxembourg. , Weiller# 255 Raymond Weiller; 1977. Les Monnaies Luxembourgeoises = Luxembourgish Coins. Institut supérieur d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. , BV# 267 Édouard Bernays, Jules Vannérus. Histoire numismatique du comté puis duché de Luxembourg et de ses fiefs (2 volumes). , KM# 22 Standard Catalog of World Coins (86 volumes). , Schön# 2 Battenberg Gietl Verlag (publisher). Weltmünzkatalog. Battenberg Gietl Verlag, Regenstauf, Bavaria, Germany (4 volumes).

See 50 swap offers

View sale offers

Obverse

Crowned Luxembourgish shield with a lion with a forked tail, rampant to the left on a field of ten pieces, surrounded by the legend between an inner circle and an external pearled circle flanked by a star at the bottom

Script: Latin

Lettering: GRAND DUCHÉ DE LUXEMBOURG

Translation: Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

Engraver: François Barth-Wahl

Reverse

Crown of laurel branches and oak surrounding the face value and the mint year in three lines and the name of the engraver surmounted by a point or the letter A at the bottom along with a ring of pearls on the outer rim

Script: Latin

Lettering:
5
CENTIMES
1870
BARTH

Engraver: François Barth-Wahl

Edge

Plain

Mints

	Royal Mint of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium (983-2017)
A	Monnaie de Paris, Paris (and Pessac starting 1973), France (864-date)

Marks

	Désiré-Albert Barre, General coin engraver, Monnaie de Paris (1855-1878)
	Charles-Louis Dierickx, Mint Master, Monnaie de Paris (1845-1860)
	Alfred Renouard de Bussière, Mint Master, Monnaie de Paris (1860-1879)

Comments

This coin of 5 centimes, as well as the 2½ centimes and the 10 centimes, were the first divisional coins (Scheidemünze) minted for the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. These coins, issued in bronze (and not in copper as mentioned in the law below) very similar to foreign coins circulating at the time in Luxembourg were also tolerated in France and Belgium. This resulted in different parities: 100 Luxembourg centimes were worth 8 Silbergros from the Thaler system and 8.1 Gros from France and Belgium. (Luxembourg and its currency, 1990, P. Margue and M-P Jungblut, pp. 50-51)

Law of January 9, 1852, ordering the manufacture of the first coins for the Grand Duchy.

The alloy of this type is fixed at 95 hundredths of copper, 4 hundredths of tin and 1 hundredth of zinc.

Two variants listed for this type.

The photos on the left show the coins struck at the Brussels mint (KM#22.1 - 1854 and 1870)

Characterized by a Roman sword and a caduceus on the right and a point on the reverse (1870 has a dot above BARTH, whereas 1854 does not).

The photos on the right show the coins struck at the Paris mint (KM#22.2 - 1855 and 1860)

At the right an anchor and an indicator hand and the reverse the letter A instead of the point.

Curiously, the coins struck at the Brussels mint show the mint mark of the Utrecht mint and this was worth M. Emmanuel Servais, Administrateur général des Finances, a letter of protest from the Dutch Minister of Finance: "Of these two signs the first (caduceus) is used to indicate that coins are minted in the mint of Utrecht, while the second (Roman sword) is the particular sign of the Director of the mentioned mint, M. H.A. van den Wall Bake. The reproduction of these two marks on foreign coins infringes the rights of the Dutch manufacture from the industrial point of view, and constitutes for these coins a defect of form, an artistic vice which it is desirable to remedy as quickly as possible". In his answer, Servais said that when he took office he had definitely adopted this monetary type, chosen by his predecessor (Norbert Metz): "The evil seems to me without remedy, since all the coins are completed". (Weiller, pp 145-146)

Manage my collection

Please sign in or create an account to manage your collection.

Date	Mintage	VG	F	VF	XF	AU	UNC		Frequency
Undetermined
1854	680 000	$ 3.00	$ 5.20	$ 5.20	$ 7.60	$ 34	$ 120	L#265-1	47%
1855 A	600 000	$ 1.90	$ 5.30	$ 6.00	$ 6.00	$ 10.00	$ 99	L#265-2	45%
1860 A	200 000		$ 5.90	$ 11	$ 34	$ 67		L#265-3	17%
1870	303 900	$ 3.90	$ 4.60	$ 4.60	$ 51	$ 72		L#265-4	27%

Values in the table above are expressed in USD. They are based on evaluations by Numista users and sales realized on Internet platforms. They serve as an indication only; they are not intended to be relied upon for buying, selling or exchanging. Numista does not buy or sell coins or banknotes.

Frequencies show the percentage of Numista users who own each year or variety among all the users who own this coin. Since some users own several versions, the sum may be greater than 100%.

Get this coin

Members from this site want to exchange it: daddycool71, manach, Busatome, ives, mad, l-ajaiste-21, Smart35, jarka1456, JeChuisEuro, Sneev, sangriablanca, zdravko, Hudster57LFC, TONY29, Sumair, Kebab, alederp, Terrazone, Ramons78, BLACKFIELD2, hyac50, Boubymomo, cyprusalexander, liege_numismatique, Joe-breuille, fabrice0701, amss, Elchi, Fm73, numis27, tareksabry, benj29b, nonosse, moineau25, SonnetZubair, biochbig, Jeff75018, tony164, Raffi, pepedu23, bevi75, scrapsmith75, Topgo, abeilleecureuil, numisft, mast, soyouz, Mazant, remy95480, flavabou…

» See the details of the coins available for swap

Numista Rarity index: 10 Search tips

This index is based on the data of Numista members collections. It ranges from 0 to 100, 0 meaning a very common coin or banknote and 100 meaning a rare coin or banknote among Numista members.

Past sales

Pictures	Sale	Date	Version	Grade	Sold price
	Katz Auction 174 Lot 879	15 Nov 2025	1854 – L#265-1	UNC	USD 168.30 (EUR 145.00) (+ buyer's premium)
© Katz Coins Notes & Supplies Corp.
	Katz Auction 138 Lot 1902	27 Sep 2024	1854 – L#265-1	UNC	USD 111.43 (EUR 96.00) (+ buyer's premium)
© Katz Coins Notes & Supplies Corp.
	Katz Auction 131 Lot 678	26 Jun 2024	1854 – L#265-1	UNC	USD 110.26 (EUR 95.00) (+ buyer's premium)
© Katz Coins Notes & Supplies Corp.
	Katz Auction 126 Lot 902	18 May 2024	1854 – L#265-1	UNC	USD 182.23 (EUR 157.00) (+ buyer's premium)
© Katz Coins Notes & Supplies Corp.
	Katz Auction 112 Lot 1249	10 Feb 2024	1854 – L#265-1	UNC	USD 80.09 (EUR 69.00) (+ buyer's premium)
© Katz Coins Notes & Supplies Corp.
	Katz Auction 112 Lot 1247	10 Feb 2024	1854 – L#265-1	UNC	USD 141.60 (EUR 122.00) (+ buyer's premium)
© Katz Coins Notes & Supplies Corp.
	Katz Auction 101 Lot 1114	18 Nov 2023	1854 – L#265-1	UNC	USD 224.01 (EUR 193.00) (+ buyer's premium)
© Katz Coins Notes & Supplies Corp.
	Katz Auction 96 Lot 1007	23 Sep 2023	1854 – L#265-1	UNC	USD 83.57 (EUR 72.00) (+ buyer's premium)
© Katz Coins Notes & Supplies Corp.
	Katz Auction 84 Lot 459	27 May 2023	1854 – L#265-1	UNC	USD 104.46 (EUR 90.00) (+ buyer's premium)
© Katz Coins Notes & Supplies Corp.
	Katz Jubilee Auction 60 Lot 2323	14 May 2022	1854 – L#265-1	UNC	USD 123.03 (EUR 106.00) (+ buyer's premium)
© Katz Coins Notes & Supplies Corp.