1801 Avoués de Lyon, France.
Bramsen 182
d'Essling 1946
Milan 322
Gadoury Jetons p. 6



A token issued by the lawyers of Lyon. I've always loved this jeton.

Wonderful jeton.

1801 Battle of Copenhagen
BHM 511
Bramsen 2159
d'Essling 930


20mm

Issued as part of a 4 medal set, originally in a brass tube. They were produced in 1805-06 after the Battle of Trafalgar where Nelson died. Complete sets are rare and I've yet to see one of the tubes.

The Battle of Copenhagen is an example of a country violating international law in the name of national security. The British attacked the city of Copenhagen after the neutral Danes refused to turn over their fleet to the British to keep it out of the hands of the French. When the Danes refused, Nelson led the fleet against the city and the Danish fleet moored there. One of Nelson's superiors began to get nervous about the destruction and ordered him to withdraw. When told of the command Nelson clapped his telescope literally to his blind eye and remarked that he didn't see any such message.

After Trafalgar a flood of Nelson medals and artifacts were produced to take advantage of the public's need to commemorate his life.

They are both nice but the Avoués de Lyon is very nice.

1801 Paix de Lunéville, France.
Bramsen 116
d'Essling 887
Milan 298



The Peace of Lunéville was a high point in Napoleon's career. For the first time since taking power he had forced his continental opponents to make peace and he was looking forward to the chance to consolidate his power base in France without the distraction of war. The British soon followed suit; there really was no point in fighting on alone. As a result of the two treaties (Lunéville and Amiens) British citizens were able to travel relatively freely on the continent and they poured in, particularly to France. Some made a point of groveling at Napoleon's feet, something that both he and the British characterist Gillray found disgusting. Gillray would lampoon the tourists in this 1802 cartoon.

1801 Le 14 Juillet 1801, France.
Bramsen 157
d'Essling 936



One of the highest relief medals I've ever seen. The obverse is so high that in order to photograph the reverse I needed to put a small ball of museum wax so I wasn't taking pictures on a slope. I believe this is made of brass, horribly lacquered, possibly painted brown before applying the lacquer.

This was the last medal of the Napoleonic era that celebrated the Storming of the Bastille and associated it with the Army's victories. Napoleon preferred medals to commemorate his acheivements rather than look back to an era before he was in power. None the less there remained a strong element in French society that looked back with fondness to the Revolution. Of course members of that element undoubtably were not directly affected by the Terror.

There were three varieties of the medal, all with spelling errors of various words and all are at least scarce.

It's a fantastic jeton, but i'm pretty sure that it was issued for La Justice de Lyon (the Judiciaries), (reference Feuardent 347). It can also be found referenced by Gadoury in his 1991 sale list (item number 2557) as being issued for La Justice.

The one that was issued for `Les Avoues de Lyon' is actually this one, which I think you might also have (Feuardent 10768). The exergue reads `Mercier a Lyon', Mercier being the engravers name.

Good info Ian! I tend to go with the identification in Bramsen where it is listed as Avoués de Lyon. But, and it's a big but (so to speak) Bramsen adds (?) to the end of that description.

Hehe. Now where do I get a copy of Feuardent?

1801 Vivat Sachen
Julius 989


45mm tin.

1801 was technically the beginning of the century and there were many medals from many countries issued around the start of the year. This piece only shows up in Julius' sale catalogue and may have been cast. If not it was weakly struck. This is from Saxony and not much is known about who issued it or who did the engraving.

1801 Paix de Lunéville
Bramsen 107
Laskey XXI
d'Essling 880



One of the classic medals commemorating the Peace. There are a couple of varieties that have slightly different placement of the obverse legends.

This medal is from what I consider the good old days of Napoleonic medal collecting. At one dealer's table I picked this medal and 6 others up for slightly more than $100. All originals and all in similar condition. When I left after closing the deal the dealer followed me and handed over another medal saying, "I'll never find somebody as interested as you in this..." and walked away. Ah, for a time travel machine...

1801 Preliminaries for the Peace of Amiens, Great Britain.
Bramsen 164
BHM 514
Julius 1017
d'Essling 942
Milan 319



One of the most common medals of the Napoleonic era available. The British community had been cooped up on their island for nearly 12 years and were ready to be tourists and to resume trade. Even the preliminaries of peace were enough to turn them loose on the continent. The reverse shows the return of prosperity and trade and significantly the barrel is addressed "To France".

Below is one in the condition they are more commonly found:


And an example in copper:

1801 Death of Sir Ralph Abercrombie, Great Britain.
Bramsen 142
BHM 505
d'Essling 922


40mm White metal - Rare

One of the events of 1801 was the final defeat of the French army Napoleon had abandoned in Egypt. They sort of muddled along there for a couple of years, hoping the British would transport them home instead of anyone needing to fight. The British instead sent Sir Ralph Abercrombie, an experienced general who, at the time, was much better known than Wellington. After a decent battle Abercrombie beat the French at Alexandria but received the wounds from which he later died.

In the end the British agreed to transport the French army home instead of further fighting. The French were forced to give up much of the ancient treasures that the French scientists that Napoleon had originally taken had collected. It is for this reason that the Rosetta Stone ended up in the British Museum and not the Louvre.

A second medal, much more rare, using the same reverse.

Bramsen 143
BHM 506
d'Essling 923
Milan 310-311


40mm White metal - RRR

The engraver was probably John Gregory Hancock, known more for his work on tokens. It does make you wonder what Abercrombie actually looked like though.

1801 Agents de change, France.
d'Essling 1962



A jeton issued by the stockbrokers of Lyon. This is a modern (1880-1950) restrike. These medallic pieces were issued by an amazing variety of associations.

Here's what an edgemark looks like on a French restrike. Starting around 1950 the date was also added. The symbols varied from 1830 until 1880. After 1880 they looked like this:

1801 Départ de Hambourg des troupes danoises, Denmark.
Bramsen 147
d'Essling 935


35mm silver

One of the consequence of the Peace of Lunéville was that Danish troops stationed in Hamburg were forced to leave. Apparently the city was upset about that...

1801 Procédé de J. P. Droz, Spain
Bramsen 187


40 mm



Droz was a talented French engraver who also entered into a competition to provide minting equipment to the Spanish royal mint. He had invented a process to replicate dies, an important advancement in an era where every die was produced by hand. The engraving is by a Spanish mint engraver (M. G. Sepulveda) and Droz didn't win the bid. It might have been too advanced...

1801 Paix de Lunéville, Austria.
Bramsen 135
d'Essling 906
Milan 307


42mm

The Archduke Charles was Napoleon's most effective opponent besides Wellington. And unlike Welington he faced Napoleon on several occasions, winning or drawing one (depending on who you talk to) and fighting near draws in several others, though ultimately losing them all.

1801 Paix de Lunéville, Austria.
Bramsen 113
d'Essling 884


31 mm

Pretty badly damaged by some goofball who took three tries to make a hole...

A wonderful group of thematic medals and jetons and a very informative post. Thank you.

A wonderful series of medals here. If anything could make me change collecting habits, though, it has to be the cartoon above.
"Gillray would lampoon the tourists in this 1802 cartoon"
Luckily the cartoons of the time are a lot more expensive than the coins I collect. So no change in the offing!

whew! Not an easy concept to convey in a few short sentences :-) What you are saying concerning edge marks is true where you are determining an original supposedly struck prior to 1832 from a restrike. However it is important to note that all jetons issued after 1832 carried edge marks. That is to say a jeton designed and issued in 1861 would carry a `bee' edge mark as a matter of course. A `bee' edge mark in that case confirms the `originality' as opposed to it being a restrike. To be able to tell an original from restrike, you need to know when the original was supposed to have been struck and whether any edge mark on it relates to that time period. If not, its a restrike.

Here's a table of the edge marks found and the years used.

prior to 1832 - no edge mark
1832 - 1841 - lampe antique (looks like alladin type oil lamp)
1841 - 1842 - a`C' with anchor interlaced
1842 - 1845 - Prou de navire (The prow of a sailing ship)
1845 - 1860 - Main indicatrice (hand to right with index finger pointing)
1860 - 1879 - Abeille (Bee)
1880 to current - Corne d'abondance (cornucopia / horn of plenty)

There are other edge marks relating to the early 1900's (losenge, tete de sanglier etc) but i'm not up on these.

Excellent point Ian! The fact is as Ian says that anything produced by the French mint after 1832 should have an edge mark. Since I collect Napoleonic era material originals should have no edge marks. That's where it gets tricky.

From about 1818 to 1830 the dies that featured Napoleon were denied to the mint. It has never been clear to me whether they were physically removed from the mint or whether they were simply locked up. After the July Revolution they were allowed to be used again. Upon inspection it was found that many of the dies were unusable and it was decided to create as exact copies as possible to replace those dies. The committee that authorized this was very picky and refused to pay for many dies that exhibited too much originality. From mid-1830 until sometime in 1832 Napoleonic medals were re-struck with no edge markings, often with the original dies. These would be indistinguishable from originals except that there was a shortage of the artificial brown patina used by the Paris mint at the same time and most were produced without the patina.

Copper / Bronze medals were not consistently edgemarked until 1840-42 and the patina supply was restored about 1835; so there was a period where the re-strikes really can't be told from an original (always remembering that I talk from the perspective of collecting 1789-1815). That is of course if the restrike was from an original die because, if you study enough of them, the replacement dies always have differences.

Ok, that all really wasn't all that coherent but I'm not sure I can word it better...

1801 Union of Ireland with Great Britain, Great Britain.
BHM 523


20mm - brass - RR

Commemorating the Union of Ireland to Great Britain with approximately 25-50 pieces produced in total.

1801 Paix de Lunéville, German State (?)
Bramsen 119
d'Essling 890


41mm white metal

I'm not certain in which of the German states this was produced. Here's a link to the page on my site.

1801 Preliminaries for the Peace of Amiens, Great Britain.
BHM 521


20mm - brass - Rare

One of a set of four medals, all rare, this one alludes to the part played by the Royal Navy in the peace that was concluded. I've always liked this image; the dove of peace sitting on the fouled anchor of the British Admiralty.

1801 Preliminaries for the Peace of Amiens, Great Britain.
BHM 516
Bramsen 162
d'Essling 941


38mm - white metal - common

One of the most common British medals of the Napoleonic era. Again the emphasis is on trade and prosperity and this time "TO FRANCE" is on the lid of the barrel.



Another example, in the usual poor condition.

1801 Union of Ireland with Great Britain, Great Britain.
BHM 526



A medal that combined both the Union and the new century.

1801 Major General Hutchinson and the Delivery of Egypt, Great Britain.
Mudie IX
BHM 509
Bramsen 2161


41mm

General Hutchinson replaced Abercrombie after the latter was wounded in the Battle of Alexandria. He eventually negotiated the return of the French Army in British ships. The reverse show Hutchincon and the Bey of Egypt signing a peace treaty before the evacuation of the British Army in September of 1801.

James Mudie was an businessman who saw an opportunity after the wars were over in hiring out-of-work French engravers to produce a series of medals covering the wars. In all there were 40 medals in the series. Before he began he released a book with prints of the medals with a description for each. Here's a photo of this medal's print from an original copy of the book:

1801 Paix de Lunéville, France (Great Britain).
Bramsen 115
d'Essling 885


38mm

J. G. Hancock, a British medallist, was active throughout this period. It was common to engrave a "J" as an "I". Bramsen indicates that both this piece and 114 were produced in Birmingham by Kempson and Kindon.

1801 Preliminaries for the Peace of Amiens, Great Britain.
BHM 522


17mm brass

A very common medal and usually in very good condition as this one is.
And another:

1801 Preliminaries for the Peace of Amiens, Great Britain.
BHM 518
Bramsen 165
d'Essling 942
Dalton & Hamer Middlesex 1166


20mm brass

As you can see there was a wide variety but they carried common themes.

1801 Visite de l'ambassadeur russe à la Monnaie, France, France.
Bramsen 149
d'Essling 931
Milan 314


28mm

Unlike most medal mint visit medals this one commemorated the visit of the Russian ambassador rather than royalty.

1801 Paix de Lunéville
Bramsen 108
Laskey XXI
d'Essling 881


42mm

This is one of the three variants of similar looking medals. The only difference in each is the placement of the obverse legends. This example was particularly difficult to photograpgh because of the fairly obvious lacquer job.

1801 Paix de Lunéville, France
d'Essling 877
Bramsen 106
Laskey XX


54mm Link

In my opinion, one of Droz' masterpieces.

You have a fantastic collection. Thank you for sharing.