How Far Back Can We Go? Sixth Edition! Ended At 1380 Waiting On 1379

Russia - 1815 SPB 10 Kopek
St. Petersburg mint
Alexander I

Today we are at 1815, a turbulent year for France. Below are two rather special coins from this year.

France 1815, 5 francs, Napoleon, minted in Paris (A) during the "hundred days."



France 1815, 20 francs, Louis XVIII, minted in London (R).



Napoleon was forced to abdicate as emperor 1814 and sent into exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba. From there he escaped the year after and landed in south of France 1st of March 1815. He was received with great enthusiasm and marched into Paris on the 20th of March, the day that marks the beginning of the so called "Hundred Days," during which Napoleon attempted to restore the French empire. Apparently the mints shared the enthusiasm, as Paris, Strasbourg and half a dozen other cities quickly began minting coins with the effigy from his time as emperor. More than a million 5 francs coins were minted, before Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo 18th of June and deposed anew. This time he was exiled to the remote island of St Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died 1821.

The 19th of March, the day before Napoleon entered Paris, the king, Louis XVIII, left hastily and took refuge in Ghent in today's Belgium. From there he authorized The Royal Mint in London to make 20 francs gold coins, to be used by Wellington's troups when they reached France. They looked like the French 20 francs coins, but were designed by a British engraver. The details that differ from the French original are that the French engraver's signature (Tiolier) is missing, there is a fleur-de-lys in place of the mint master's mark and, of course, the unique mint mark "R" for London. The coins circulated in France during the second half of 1815, but were strongly disapproved of by the French mint and eventually declared illegal and many melted down. (The Napoleonic coins were not retracted, but then again, they were made by the French mint...)

Thank you NumisRob!

I have no blockade coins from Strasbourg, so it is lovely to see yours! The city has an interesting sequence of blockade coins during the two sieges by allied armies, first in 1814 during the last days (the first last days ) of Napoleon, then again in 1815 when he returned. Both times the coins start out marked with an "N" for Napoleon, later to be replaced by an "L" when he was replaced by Louis XVIII.

And your slightly worn 20 francs shows that gold coins really circulated, as I have discussed in an earlier post in this thread. 20 francs was about £1 at the time, about 2-3 weeks pay for a worker, so a sizeable sum.

1815 -- Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves, 400 reis:

Mexico City

1814 -- Colony of Angloa, 1 macuta:

1814 -- United States, 10 cents:

1814 - France, AE medal, 40.5mm, 31.5g
Bramsen 1466

This bronze medal commemorates Friedrich Wilhelm III's visit to The Royal Mint in Paris in 1814 following his victory over Napoleon and the successful capture of Paris in March of that year.

The engraver was Raymond Gayrard, and the bust design was by Baron Dominique Vivant Denon, Napoleon's hand-picked director/curator of the Louvre, and quite famous in his own right. Denon's name is below the bust.

It must have been a singularly disconcerting experience to not only have to design a bust for the King who just took your city, but also to be asked to execute the design on a medal! "Kicking them when they're down" comes to mind.

Scarcely a few years prior, this would have been inconceivable, with French-controlled states in Germany using German mint equipment to strike up French-denominated coins using the French designs of Tiolier!

The die defect (rust pit?) on the obverse is seen on all known issues of this medal in bronze.