The Python/arcpy field class does not have a defaultValue property! Is that an oversight, or a deliberate feature of arcpy's field class? I know the IField interface (ArcObjects) will provide the defaultValue, but using comtypes is a hassle. Any other way of getting the default field value using Python?
Aaaargh! You're right! The field.defaultValue *is* a valid property...it just isn't documented in 10.1 or 10.2!!!
I was relying on the documentation for the arcpy field class. I also tried searching the 10.2 help for "defaultValue," and finally gave up and parsed the default values out of the metadata xml files (ugh!).
I submitted feedback through the Help pages, so hopefully that will be updated.