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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
Welcome to 1812 - the year of a famous Overture by Tchaikovsky and Napoleon's luck starting to unravel and the Americans under attack from the Brits. Sadly the coin situation was less exciting for me with tokens only.   A privately minted token. This is for a workhouse which offers Public accomodation in Birmingham. The penny sized token is huge at 34mm and weighs 18 grams. It shows two beruffled hands shaking and writing on the other side. Condition again is Fineish. I have two superworn other tokens too.   A similar one to the above but more worn and another one actually showing the union workhouse. Believe me, a workhouse is not where you wanted to be in 1812! I am not sure if these were commercial tokens worth a penny (With the promise of a £1 note being handed out for 240 of them), or you could spend a night in the workhouse with it or it was merely promoting the workhouse and buying the thing at say tuppence (1d value and 1d donation to the workhouse) was the motive of these coins. Perhaps someone who knows more could enlighten us. Now in 1812 we are entering a major period of copper and silver trading tokens in Britain, Ireland and Canada. Edited by Princetane
08/16/2020 02:53 am
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Pillar of the Community
 Sweden
2124 Posts |
France 1812, 40 francs, Napoleon, Paris (A).  Napoleon at the height of his power, with the French Empire extending from Gibraltar to Warsaw, and Napoleon wanting to extend it further east. This day 218 years ago, 16 August 1812, marks the commencement of the battle of Smolensk, the first major battle of the French invasion of Russia. It ended with French victory and Napoleon continued his march onto Moscow. He did reach Moscow, but the Russian scorched earth tactics and Russian winter eventually became too much. The cold winter and scorched land took a heavy toll on the retreating Grande Armee, without supplies and ill equipped for cold weather. It was the beginning of the end for Napoleon and the French Empire. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United Kingdom
18156 Posts |
Nice tokens, Princetane! I imagine that the workhouse tokens were issued so the workhouse management could give change when outsiders purchased goods produced by the inmates, and possibly to pay the inmates for tasks such as breaking rocks or picking oakum. But, like all tokens of the period, they were probably accepted over a much wider area. Here's the unlucky Napoleon himself on two French coins: a Paris half-franc (mintmark A) and a Toulouse franc (mintmark M). I suspect that the franc was once in the possession of someone who didn't like Napoleon!   |
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Pillar of the Community
4628 Posts |
Thanks for that NumisRob, I knew there was some altruism behind the workhouse tokens.
As for Boney, I have a piece of his to show you tomorrow and the story of the Grand Armee is a a sad but epic one, some 750k crossed the Vistula into Russia and less than 2000 made it back.
The army starved and was plagued with deserters and the legend lasted long with even the discovery of the first Neandertal cranium in Germany in 1856 was believed to be the remains of a tragic Cossack pressee from 1812! Yet hindsight did not work with Hitler facing the same dilemma exactly 130 years later.
It was the same spot, the Sparrow hills outside Moscow at a place called Borodino.
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Valued Member
Hungary
111 Posts |
erafjel uploaded A (Paris) I uploaded the W (Lille)   |
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Pillar of the Community
Sweden
2124 Posts |
Quote:
I uploaded the W (Lille)  |
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Valued Member
Hungary
111 Posts |
 at least we blonde Vikings hold together  Edited by Gabibacsi
08/16/2020 06:50 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
789 Posts |
1812 US Large Cent - S288   1812 Russian Empire, 2 Kopeks, Ekaterinburg mint.   |
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Bedrock of the Community
Canada
24885 Posts |
1812 Austria - Habsburg 1 Kreutzer - Franz I.   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
9395 Posts |
1812 -- Kingdom of Westphalia, 20 centimes:   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
9395 Posts |
1812 -- United States, 1 cent:   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
9395 Posts |
1812 -- United States, 50 cents:   |
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Moderator
 United States
34511 Posts |
1812 Large Cent:   "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1665 Posts |
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Valued Member
Hungary
111 Posts |
I like this type of 50c., congrat!
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Replies: 7,432 / Views: 402,864 |
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Posted 08/16/2020 04:09 am
