Proof-reading is required for France 5 centimes 1966-2001

It seems that there are a lot of inconsistency in
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces2.html


The year distribution
1997 199,980,000 bee mark, 4 folds
1997 bee mark close to "5"
1997 bee mark close to "R"
1997 6,436 bee mark, 3 folds, Proof
1997 6,436 bee mark, 4 folds, Proof

most probably

1997 199,980,000 bee mark close to "5", 4 folds
1997 bee mark close to "R", 4 folds
1997 6,436 bee mark, 4 folds, Proof

deleted lines are a duplication [to make a discovery is just a tiny park of the work, the discovery should be embedded in the classification and embedded correctly] and the description of a non-existing coin.


1998 300,084,000 bee mark, 4 folds
1998 7,404 bee mark, 3 folds, Proof
1998 7,404 bee mark, 4 folds, Proof
1998 bee mark, 4 folds, broad top hole in "8"
1998 bee mark, 4 folds, filled top hole in "8" (die break)

Last line should be deleted obviously. Second line, most probably describes the non-existing coin. As the result there is no place for the 4th line as well.
so we get

1998 300,084,000 bee mark, 4 folds
1998 7,404 bee mark, 4 folds, Proof



1999- are they with 3 folds?

The Obverse section. It does not describe horseshoe. Maybe it should?

Hmmm... This bee placement issue seems to be due to Ole's investigations, however most French litterature don't take care of this. Furthermore, Ole's lines were less old than French made ones, and there is so much owners who may be moved to the wrong line...

However these 3/4 fold varieties are reported in French catalogs, so they must exist and be listed that way, no inconsistency.

Please notice also there were no more circulation coinage since 1999 as this coin has no more need to be minted: Banque de France coin reserves were enough filled and its use was quite low in the last years before the euro introduction. Please notice also FRF 0.05 is worth EUR 0.01 after rounding, but a little lower in real value (EUR 0.0076 approx.)

Anyway this would require a review through the French forum to decide what to do with the Bee issue.

The resource for
1997- is a French catalog
http://www.lefranc.net/monnaie,5-centimes-marianne,125.html
it states, that there is 4-folds variety only.

And I tend to agree, for the Numista catalog https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces2.html not just introduced the 3-folds coins, but for some years gives the same mintage for each variety. This is a bit more suspicious, if there was not luck. The Authorities used not to distinguish such varieties and give the mintage for all coins together. In other words to see that the mintage for the other variety is included in the first one is more common, then to learn that mint took care and counted each variety, issuing them in exactly the same amount (starting from 1996-1998).

It is easier to believe that the copy-and-paste mistake happened, that is why this topic was suggested.

This file does not consider Proof coinage. I checked my Gadoury which confirmed in the separate BE listing the existence of these 3-fold coins

Taking into account chomp_master remarks, I would suggest for the 3 first lines:

1997 199,980,000 4 folds, undetermined bee mark distance
1997 4 folds, bee mark close to "5"
1997 4 folds, bee mark close to "R"

This will avoid placing coins in the wrong category. Collectors noticing this new variety will gradually move their coins from "undetermined bee distance" to one of the 2 other categories.

Though the last proposition looks reasonable, it seems that it does not suit the idea of catalog.

The catalog is the place where everything is attributed and attributed in the only way.

Can you imagine a star catalog with similar description? Or a catalog of insects, or of medical tablets?

As for the possibility to be attributed wrong, there are many samples of these cases here. Many people attribute their coins with mistakes. I'm sure that even in my swap list there are many mistakes. Despite of this, when necessary a swapper asks questions about the coin of interest. I always do that, and many swappers ask similar questions about mine coins.