The Coins of Napoleon's Era

A few more facts (and coins) relevant to the Napoleonic era.

After the failure to establish a constitutional monarchy (1791-1792), King Louis XVI was deposed and the ruling Legislative Assembly was replaced by the National Convention.

The National Convention (1792-1795) proclaimed the French Republic (September 1792) and condemned the king to death. This was a period of intense internal and external conflict which led to the installation of the so-called Reign of Terror, one of whose leaders was Robespierre.
The guillotine functioned day and night during that period, ultimately claiming among its victims many participants of the revolution. The revolution eats its own children.....

These two coins where minted by order of the French National Convention.
They are the so-called Ecu de 6 Livres, and besides Paris, they were also minted at
a number of provincial mints.
The Ecu the 6 Livres has very nice design, and is generally difficult to find in good condition. These coins constituted a fair amount of money in their day and represented 1 week's pay for a laborer. From what I have read, with one of these one could purchase 8 ducks, 20 chickens or 16 kg of bread.


Ecu de 6 Livres de la Convention, Minted at Lille, 1793, (mintmark W)

Ecu de 6 Livres de la Convention, minted at Lyon, 1793, (mintmark D).

 

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I've seen those before, pretty neat stuff.

 

As a matter of fact today december 2nd is the anniversary of Napoleon's coronation. Just in case someone is interested : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_of_Napoleon_I

Q

 

Here is a coin of another Napoleon. Yet another historic figure for my collection. This popped up a few minutes ago on vcoins for a price I could not resist. Yes it has a small cut mark to the rim of the obverse, but I was will to forgive that for the 85.00 price tag (shipping included).

Napoleon III (1859) Gold 5 Francs. Paris Mint. 16.7 mm 1.629 gr.

Obv: Bare head right

Rev: denomination within wreath

Gadoury 1859.
Ex. Numiscorner

 

That is a nice coin of the nephew of Napoleon I, Orfew
Good buy!

 

Thanks @Eduard it will make a nice addition to my collection.

 

An awesome date to have MY Napoleon coin shipped!