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A hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals—such as platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium. In a more general sense, the term hallmark is used to refer to any standard of quality.
Assay offices are institutions set up to assay (test the purity of) precious metals. This is often done to protect consumers from buying fake items. Upon successful completion of an assay (i.e. if the metallurgical content is found be equal or better than that claimed by the maker and it otherwise conforms to the prevailing law) the assay offices typically stamp a hallmark on the item to ...
The French government awarded the Order of the Black Star in Europe until 1 January 1964. The decolonisation and restructuring of the French colonial empire, one speaks now of the " French Union ", made necessary other adaptations in the French knighthood orders.
Some, like the Legion of Honour, are awarded to both the armed forces and civilians. Others are decorations of a pure civilian or military character. Only four of the 19 Ministerial orders have survived the reform of the French system of decorations in 1963. The others were replaced by the Ordre national du Mérite.
The term écu (French pronunciation:) may refer to one of several French coins. [1] The first écu was a gold coin (the écu d'or) minted during the reign of Louis IX of France, in 1266. The value of the écu varied considerably over time, and silver coins (known as écu d'argent) were also introduced.
The Paris Mint and the national postal service said Tuesday that 5-euro and 15-euro coins will be available in silver while the 100-euro coin will be in gold. Interesting enough, a further limited set of gold and silver coins will be issued by 2010, with the highest value a gold 500-euro coin was also recently announce by the French Mint. [2]
The National Defence Medal is a 36 mm in diameter circular medal struck from bronze, the gold level is gilt, the silver award is silvered. The obverse bears the relief image of Rude's Marseillaise with the relief inscription along the upper circumference "FRENCH REPUBLIC" (French: RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE).
Half Louis d’or of Louis XIII (1643) [nb 2] The Louis d'or (a gold coin) replaced the franc which had been in circulation (in theory) since John II.In actual practice the principal gold coin circulating in France in the earlier 17th century had been Spanish: the 6.7-gram double escudo or "doubloon", of which the Louis d'or was an explicit copy.