He was a coin engraver of France and Holland, a medallist and sculptor. Auguste-François Michaut was born in Paris in 1786 and was brought up in an artistic environment . His father Jean Michaut was a member of a craftsman association with Jean Baptiste ( Jean's brother). They owned a fine art foundry specialized in casting and chiseling, which was located in Paris, rue du Temple. In 1801 his mother died. By 1809 he had entered the École des beaux-arts de Paris where he primarily found himself very much inclined towards the practice of sculpture. At the time, he was the pupil of the sculptors and Jean Guillaume Moitte. In 1809 he was admitted to take part in the prix de Rome competition but he suffered from a bad chest condition which forced him to give up sculpting altogether. He became a medallist instead. ( also known as "Galle the eldest") taught him the fundamentals of engraving ; his signature was F.Michaut and a Roman lamp upon an anchor was what he used as a privy mark. During that same period he befriended fellowstudent James Pradier also one of Lemot's pupil. On 13 June 1813 he won second prize for the Grand Prix de Rome contest in the medal-engraving section, the subject being the French Hercules; the Academy had decided no first prize would be granted that year. He took part in the contest again the following year, but the jury members delivered their apologies to Michaut: one second prize only was to be awarded and he had already obtained it the year before; there was indeed no remaining award other than the Grand prix de Rome he could possibly acquire. Thereafter he was appointed by Napoleon the 1st's government to execute the medal "L'aigle français sur la Volga" under Dominique Vivant Denon's supervision. Auguste François's son Auguste Victor Michaut was born on 19 February 1814 but he would only become his legal son ten years later when his father eventually married Jeanne Louis, his mother. She was five years older than Auguste François Michaut and had divorced from her previous husband fifteen years older than her in 1804. During the first Restoration, a competition for coin-engraving perfection was set up on 2 August 1814, which aimed to redefine the type of coins in use and henceforth to redesign the next monetary system. He won the contest over six older and more experienced medallists ( Bertrand Andrieu, , , and Pierre-Joseph Tiolier) than he was ;  9 December 1815 decree stated that Michaut's patterns should substitute the older ones and new coins be minted from 1 January 1816.