KM# 2, N# 7571; Billon; Louis XVI; In order to be adopted by the population, "coinage had to be silvered in the French American colonies, even a little, i.e., in billon, which explains the success of all kinds of “marked sols.” The government understood this when he decided, in 1763, to mark with a simple crowned C, meaning “French Colonies,” and not Cayenne. For planchets, they used all those “sol marqués” produced since 1738 that were too worn to circulate in France, to make savings. This process was called “estampage,” hence the nickname of “sol tampé” in French and “stamped sol” in English. The success, in a French America reduced to the West Indies after the Treaty of Paris, was instant. To such a point that new ones had to be made on new blanks from 1780 onwards —the first shipment was reserved for newly-settled Guyana. Meanwhile, the British made considerable quantities of counterfeit in brass during the wars of the Revolution (1797–1798)."; F
