doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Saint Etienne info. please?

Interesting on prices. I have a page from a 1934 Verney-Carron catalog, showing the Helice 33 prices running from 595F for the No. 1 to 725F for the No. 3. (At least they ran their model #'s in order!)

A 15,000F Robust would've been something to see. However, I'm not sure what the exchange rate was in the 30's. I do know that in more recent times, long before they went to the euro, the French changed their monetary system by a factor of 100: it took 100 old francs to equal 1 new one. After that change, the exchange rate ran in the neighborhood of 5 to 8F = $1. I was in France when it was running 8 to 1, and I shudder to think of the guns I should've bought then.

Larry,
This 15,000F Ideal was indeed a work of art and advertised as such.
The problem with prices in Fr is that inflation was very large during and after WWI. The lowest grade Ideal was 160Fr in 1910 and that became 1200Fr in 1930.
France was basically bled by the "great" war, both financially and humanly. 1.5M men disappeared in the conflict out of a population of about 40M. Just try and imagine the USA losing 7M soldiers in WWII...

The 100:1 "devaluation" happened in the 60s. Now the Euro is working against us collectors!
WC

WC, I remember the 100:1 devaluation. I took French students over there in the 70's, and we were still warning them to make sure they didn't pay in new F and get old F in change. Some unscrupulous Froggies were still pulling that trick on foreigners back then.

Post deleted by Robert Chambers

Probably the most complete and up to date source on French proofmarks is Lee Kennett's article in Gun Digest, 24th edition (1970). He basically updated Baron Engelhardt's articles, which appeared in "Gun Digest Treasury: The Best of the Gun Digest from 1945-1960".

It's Christmas Eve Larry, you can retact you claws...the reason I posted the above, was because everyone has already seen the Gun Digest stuff about a thousand times...

I thought they might want to see something a little DIFFERENT...

But thanks for devaluing the material anyway...I'll take it down...

Robert, no one is "devaluing" anything. The Kennett article, which runs to some 10 pages, is more recent than the information you posted, which you dated from 1945. Kennett includes changes made in French proof in the 1960's. That's why I said "most complete and up to date source". Obviously, something written in 1945 couldn't include changes made in the 60's.

Why not make a New Year's resolution, Robert, to try to be a bit less sensitive and defensive in 2008? Don't assume that any post suggesting a source or information that adds something to what you posted as an attack. See it as exactly what's supposed to happen on this forum: an open exchange of information and sources.

Unfortunately, we don't have one single source that includes comprehensive proof information, for all nations with proofhouses, from the beginning to the present. Now there's a very worthwhile task for someone who wants to do the research--and there would certainly be a market for it in published form.

Merry Christmas!