Piedfort - Heavy Weight Coins - Silver Gold Platinum

Piedfort - Heavy Weight Coins - Silver Gold Platinum
A piedfort is a specially struck coin, originally made for
presentation, perhaps by a monarch. The word "piedfort" is French and
literally means "heavy weight". Most piedforts are double the normal
weight. Now made for sale to collectors.

Silver Gold and Platinum
Most of the modern piedforts, made to sell to collectors, are made in
silver, gold, or platinum. They are usually double the normal thickness
and weight, but some are only about 50% thicker and heavier than
normal. Most of issued as proofs with highly polished fields and matt
finish on their raised design surfaces.

Etymology
The word "piedfort" is French, and combines the two words "pied"
meaning weight, and "fort" meaning strong or heavy, thus a piedfort is
literally a "heavyweight" coin. From our schoolboy memories of French,
we would have probably translated it as "strong foot"!

Pronunciation
French numismatists would of course have no problem pronouncing this
word, but English speaking collectors and dealers all seem to have
their own version of its pronunciation.
Here is our own "Chard" guide:
"Pee - ed - four"
Note, the final "t" is not pronounced, or is only pronounced very softly,
although
"pee - aid - four"
would also be about right.
We have heard the following, all of which are wrong:
Pied - fort (pide - fort)
piddy fort

UK Piedforts
In the UK, the Royal Mint started issuing silver proof piedforts in
1983 with the introduction of the new pound coin. They have continued
every year since.
Fifty pence silver piedfort proofs have been issued since 1992.
The first piedfort silver proof crown was issued in 2000 for the Queen
Mother's centenary year, and seems to have flopped slightly at release.
They were originally sold at 67.50, but can now be bought for less.
In 2004, the Mint issued a piedfort proof 5 Entente Cordial crown in
platinum, containing 3 tray ounces of platinum, probably because of a
cooperative marketing campaign with the French Mint, the Monnaie de
Paris. They seem to have been pleased with sales, as they repeated the
experiment in 2005 and 2006 with platinum issues for Nelson and the
Queen's eightieth birthday.

More to Follow
We cannot find any side-on photographs of piedforts in our extensive
image library. We will take some photographs, and add them to this page
soon.

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