5 francs Berger SPECIMEN numbered!

A new specimen discovered.

News by Ingrid - on Nov. 8, 2023

The numismatic world is so exciting! Each discovery produces a unique story and adventure. Every find can become a treasure.

Today we share with you the discovery of a new numbered 5 francs Berger SPECIMEN. It's important to remember that it's already rare to find 5 francs Berger in Specimen.

Let's take a look at the history of this bill and its various specimen versions.

The perforated version, the best-known
The non-perforated version, recently discovered!
and finally, the numbered version. That is, overprinted with the specimen number.

But first, let’s talk a little history.

The 5 francs Berger is a banknote issued by the Banque de France in 1943. Its design was created by the artist Clément Serveau. It was engraved by Ernest Deloche and Georges Hourriez. It was sometimes called: "5 francs Berger et Femme coiffée". It is the successor to the 5 francs violet.

This bill was put into circulation during the German occupation of World War II. The 5 francs Berger is of course a common means of payment, but it also helps to recall the history of France during this period. In other words, the return to the value of labor and the development of our regions (the Pyrenees, Brittany, etc.).

As early as 1940, a portrait of Jacques Cœur competed with the various effigies of Mercury to symbolize commercial prosperity. The following year, Minerva, tutelary goddess of craftsmen, took a back seat to an underground miner, magnifying the industrial sector. In 1942 and again in 1943, Ceres and the scenes of rural and maritime life were replaced by a fisherman in action and a young shepherd to evoke, in a less bucolic but more realistic way, all agricultural and fishing activities. What's more, to further anchor these innovations in the real world, the vast majority of coins also acquired a hitherto uncommon territorial dimension on the reverse. Thus, Jacques Cœur is associated with Berry, the shepherd with the Pyrenees and the fisherman with Brittany, through characteristic landscapes and, above all, traditional costumes. Some of these regional evocations also emphasize family values, much more ostensibly than the chubby but emotionally orphaned cherubs used sporadically during the Third Republic.

Back to our 5 francs Berger...

Ticket description:

Format : 65 x 100 mm.
Front page: Young Pyrenean shepherd, wearing a beret and holding a stick in his right hand. In the background, a small village with a mountainous landscape. In the upper right-hand corner is written "Banque de France".
Back page: Woman from Agen wearing traditional clothing, a cloth over her head, a scarf covering her shoulders, a necklace with a cross and, in the background, multicolored flowers forming a frame. In the lower right, next to the value of the banknote, is written "Le contrefacteur sera puni des travaux forcés à perpétuité" ("The counterfeiter will be punished with forced labor for life"), and in the upper right, "Banque de France" ("Bank of France").

3 versions of SPECIMEN

1/ The perforated specimen

The perforated version of the 5 Francs Berger banknote is the best known.

Source : cgb.fr

At the time of sale live auction from Cgb.fr made in April 2020, one example sold for 2200€ with a PMG 64 grade (Pr.NEUF).

Signatures : Rosseau, R. Favre-Gilly and the alphabet-series : O.000 n°00000

2/ The unperforated specimen

Even rarer than the perforated version, the non-perforated version of the Berger banknote was recently discovered. A NEW copy was sold for €2100 to the CGB at its live auction in July 2023. Without perforation or overprint. This was the first time the CGB had seen a specimen of this type with an alphabet-serial O.000 n°00000.