Newbie, ignorant, inexperienced. Asking for your help.

Hello everyone,

I have a collection of around 500 French 10- and 20-centime coins, some in good condition, others less so. All of them have circulated (no UNC coins), and they cover the years from 1962 to 2000. The lot was recently found while tidying up.
 

I've taken clear photos of both sides, sorted by year. I have access to professional equipment and am trying to make the most of it, but as this is my first time working with this specific type of object, any advice on visual standards or photographic expectations in numismatics would be greatly appreciated.
 

I'm looking to get an estimation of their value, particularly by identifying:

• rare or sought-after years,
• coins with higher value (minting errors, low mintage, etc.),
• a realistic price range per coin or by lot, depending on their condition.
   

I'm based in Alès (Gard, France). If anyone here has local contacts or knows of events nearby (fairs, coin shows, collectors' markets, etc.), I’d be very interested.
 

Coming from the 3D world with strong experience in photogrammetry, I aim to build a high-fidelity digital collection of these coins. My goal is to combine technical precision with the memory carried by these objects. Paradoxically, worn or damaged coins are sometimes more interesting to scan—"perfect" surfaces are too easy to model. In the digital realm, what has lived tends to have more value.
 

Lastly, I have the crucial question of cleaning. So far, I haven’t touched anything. I've read very mixed opinions: some strongly advise against cleaning, while others support it depending on the case. For now, I prefer to keep the coins “dirty” for realistic digital captures, but if cleaning is important before selling, I’m open to doing so. I’ve read that WD-40 combined with a soft toothbrush could be a good method — would you agree?
 

Here are a few test shots (pipeline in progress), taken in daylight. I’m not entirely satisfied yet. I plan to switch to a flash setup (to ensure consistent lighting 24/7 and allow ICC profiling with xRite), change the background, and probably use a 1.5x magnifier or a dedicated macro lens. Right now, using a Canon 50mm f/1.8 at f/8, I’m limited by the minimum focusing distance, which gives me about 1042 pixels in diameter for a 10-centime coin.
 

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Thanks in advance for any advice or valuation input 🙏

I suspect that most of them are demonetized pre euro coins.

Maybe register them in your numista collection and see if any of them stand out as not common.

All your images are in one numista page - N#3 

:) You have third item registered in numista. Probably got first one too.

Welcome to Numista.

This type was minted in large numbers every year, so they are common and not worth much, unless in uncirculated grades. 

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces3.html ;

https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/world/france-10-centimes-km-929-1962-2001-cuid-1127551-duid-1265578

You might want to reconsider the effort to do photography for coins with such low value.

One thought on selling them is to compose “lots" with multiple dates which might appeal to somoene beginning a collection of this series.  But even then, you mighton only expect a euor or two.

You can also pose the question on the French side of numista to see what opinions you get .   https://fr.numista.com/forum/forum1.html