1805 3 Pfenning, Osnabruck


24mm Link

Being a one year type coin doesn't mean that there weren't die varieties. Take a look at this other 1805 3 Pfenning:

1840 Translation aux Invalides du corps de Napoléon, France.


33 x 38mm Link

An unlisted variant. There were an amazing number of junk medals, such as this one, that were produced at the time Napoleon's body was returned from St. Helena to France.

1842 L'Armée au Duc d'Orleans Prince Royal, France.


27mm Link

Louis Philippe I was known as the Duc d'Orleans during the Napoleonic Wars and was involved with the Royalist forces allied against France.

That is one outstanding portrait...mind me asking how much you got that one for? Couldnt have been that cheap I would think...

It was $22 including shipping. Let's face it, Louis Philippe isn't well known.

I would have to say you got a real deal...

nice bunch of coins

1812 6 Pfennig, Schwarzburg—Rudolstadt


15.5mm Link

Amazing medals!
May I ask how one goes about researching these medals?

Thanks. I'm guessing you mean the medals I posted toward the end of July. Actually they are at the outside of the range of years that I specialize in. Because of that much of my references start to peter out in detail when I get into the 1840s. I have collected copies of the standard reference material covering Napoleonic and Revolutionary era medals over the years and I always start with them. While most material is listed in them, and there usually is a bit of history written in them I have found a few dozen over the years that definitively are from the period but got missed. A source not listed in the link is Forrer's classic work on engravers throughout the ages. Sometimes it is the only way to narrow down the date a particular medal was produced when other reference books fail.

There are about 20 other books that classify or describe these medals that I haven't used on my website. Some other sources are numismatic publications and doctoral theses. Also you get a tremendous amount of information on forums such as this one. One of the best sources I ever encountered was an old gentleman who had been collecting for over 50 years. He sent me an email correcting some factual errors on my site and over the years we exchanged literally thousands of emails. Though he has passed away I still host his site.

wow, elverno. that man had quite a site. thank you so much for continuing it in his memory.

Absolutely beautiful and impressive collection. I am really glad I went through this thread today. Your time frame is really interesting and the fact that you don't confine your collection geographically is a guaranty for nice coins. Am I right to assume that you connect it to the French revolution and the downfall of Napoleon, right? Or were there other reasons behind that choice?

I am sorry for the loss of your friend. Continuing his work (and that is a very nice site) is a great way to show your respect.

Wow! Truly an amazing site, Elverno! Sorry for the loss of your friend

First of all thanks to everyone for the kind words about David. Though he passed away almost five years ago I still find myself scanning my email for one of his messages.

My motivation is a combination of reasons. In fact I'm one of those folks that believes that Napoleon has received a bad rap over the centuries for the sort of behavior that was perfectly acceptable for the winning side. The times he lived in were very different from ours in terms of national aspirations, personal conduct, respect for life and property and many others. We tend to project our morals on past times and point to say "see, he was a bad man!"

An example is the persistent comparison with Hitler. The massacre of the Turkish prisoners in Egypt is equated with the Holocaust. In one case Napoleon was faced with men he had captured twice. He was short on food and supplies and when he captured several thousand men was faced with abandoning his campaign in order to be able to escort them back to his base. Instead he released them on "parole", a common practice where in return for a promise not to fight until properly exchanged for held prisoners the Turks were released. A couple of weeks later in another battle he captured them again! Instead of following what amounted to international law they rearmed themselves and fought him again. By this time he had even less supplies and men to guard prisoners so he took them out and had them shot. Thousands of them.

Shocking. By our standards it certainly was. His other choice was to accept their parole again and, probably, fight them again down the road. By the way this all took place in the area we now know as the Sinai and the Gaza strip. At the time there were no places he could have locked them up. And even if he had he couldn't have fed or guarded them.

This is the incident that is usually cited to prove that Napoleon and Hitler were identical monsters. To my perhaps simplistic mind it seems to be a stretch to compare this to the systematic attempt to eliminate a race of people.

The period is one whose incidents we're still living out. Napoleon had in mind a United States of Europe, though he would have just called it Imperial France. Toward that end he helped codify laws (much more important than it may seem at first), build roads, canals, encourage industry and trade, broke the secular stranglehold of the Church without eliminating it as a spiritual power, emancipated the Jews of Europe (though that didn't last), provided for orphans, established public schools... well you get the idea. It was the age of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. The rise of German and Italian nationalism is directly traceable to his attempts to unify those countries and the establishment of what we know of as Switzerland is attributable to his meddling in their affairs.

I'm actually less interested in the military aspects than the social and political ones and have been known to rant when unsuspecting people ask me questions! I'll climb down now...

You are running into open doors, as we say in Germany. I agree with you what Napoleon is concerned.

Probably the similarity of a poorly planed Russian campaign also helps this way of thinking about Napoleon and nearly equating him with Hitler. When I try to recall the first thing I learned in school about Napoleon then I would have to say that it was exactly that and that it was even taught to us with Hitler as a parallel.

By the way, Napoleon also introduced the "Décret sur les sépultures" in 1804. Cemeteries had to then be build outside cities and villages, because it was deemed unsanitary to continue with the practice of burying within the urban areas. One direct consequence of this was the San Michele cemetery outside Venice; the most beautiful cemetery every built (in my most humble opinion).

Napoleon's actions also resulted to the removal of Venice from the Ionian islands, which inevitably led to the Ionikon Kratos (the United States of the Ionian Islands) and then to their unification with mainland Greece. So, we Greeks should be quite thankful to him for breaking the firm grasp of Venice on these Islands.

Thank you for sharing all this, elverno. I've always liked collections with a special interest behind them.

Napoleon was indeed a masterful general for his time period, and everyone must remember he deemed himself a soldier many times, although he seemed to mainly work for his own plans, and the propaganda he used was a bit underhanded (Like the letters from "soldiers" making it sound like they beat the Russians), he was in most aspects a powerful leader for his country. His methods seem cruel and horrid by todays standards, but think about many US generals marches during the civil war, raizing town after town.

On a side note, Ingres painting (Napoleon on his Imperial Throne) comes to mind, and the fact that Napoleon hated it, makes me wonder what he really wanted to be. The painting compared him to former kings, and it is my understanding that he hated the idea of a monarchy.

And, if you think he was completely heartless, research the painting, and newspaper baron Bertan, another of Ingres painting subjects. This man was exiled twice by Napoleon for basically trash talking him in his newspapers, but he respected him for having the guts to say those things so much, he never had him killed. Napoleon was an interesting historical figure, and played an important, yet short part in the worlds history. I am no expert on him, but I do enjoy learning about him.

hehe. We call that "preaching to the choir". I like running into open doors though. Sort of describes my life sometimes.

The comparisons of Napoleon and Hitler are definitely better when considering the Russian campaign. Bad planning indeed though Napoleon's primary reason for a late start (crops ripening in order to feed his horses and men) differ from Hitler's. Both started far to late in the year, as if they were expecting the Russians to simply capitulate instead of fight. Even a couple of battles guaranteed that the campaign would fail, the distances were simply too great.

I had heard about the cemeteries though the specific decree isn't in my notes. Thanks, I'll be adding that.

He had a very neat mind. And that translated into trying to make the world around him neat and tidy. Three hundred German states, principalities and whatnot? No way. They all have their own laws, trade tariffs, mints and monetary systems? Weights and measures are different? Let's use that metric system they invented during the Revolution. On the other hand he really didn't like the Revolutionary calendar any more than farmers did. The new calendar only had one day off in 10 instead of 1 in 7. So he did away with it, and the confusion it was causing as people tried to match it up with the Julian and Gregorian systems in effect at the time as well.

Napoleon was the first true propagandist. He understood that people associate events and feelings with physical objects. So he encouraged medal production and established the Legion of Honneur, something anyone could aspire to, even civilians. But practical to the core a recipient of the Legion also received monetary rewards, from a few hundred francs to thousands of acres of land in conquered countries. The famous "men are led by baubles" had to do with the Legion but reveals some of his underlying cynicism. It would be surprising if he weren't a cynic given his position and the people he was surrounded by. He believed in keeping his friends close and his enemies closer. But when his enemies served his government he became loyal to them, a trait that ultimately left them in position to bring down his Empire twice, in 1814 and 1815.

He respected those who had the guts to oppose him. That doesn't mean he wasn't ruthless. When the Duc d'Enghien set up housekeeping with his mistress in a chateau across the border from France he had the Duc kidnapped, kangaroo court trial and execution all in one night. He had every reason to believe that the Duc was plotting to either assassinate Napoleon himself or to lead Royalist troops in a civil war. Napoleon equated him with terrorism and treated him accordingly. Politically it turned all of Europe against him. If the Duc had not been royalty they probably wouldn't have cared a bit. Talleyrand, one of those enemies Napoleon was keeping close, was furious. He said, “This is worse than a crime, it's a blunder”

Aaah! Preaching to the choir then.

Well, your entire collection is preaching to mine. It seems to be the sort of collection that cannot really get boring at any time.

By the way... if I remember correctly, the decree concerning the cemeteries was first applied in Germany. Outside of France that is.

1918 25 Centimes, Belgium

1808 1 Heller, Bavaria


14mm Link

nie 25 peice!!!

"1 heller" nice

More great stuff and interesting info too.

1794 12 Heller, Aachen


Link

It appears to be an overstrike.

ohhhh very nice!!

yea nice coin an looks like a overstrike near the date

1805 1/12 Skilling, Sweden


20mm Link

Harshly cleaned.

More great old stuff.

1796 40 Reis, Brazil


41mm Link

The undated counterstamp on the obverse is from the 1809 revaluation of Portuguese money, particularly Brazilian. In this case the coin was changed from 40 to 80 reis. Notice the old collector's ink inventory number on the obverse.

Nice counterstamp on that one, the only damage I prefer, lol.

1802 1 Pfenning, Lippe-Detmold


20mm Link

An upgrade.

Nice flower design.

1797 Frederick William III ascends the throne of Prussia


41mm Link

One of Loos' masterpieces in my opinion.

I love that medal.

very nice...

Beautiful medal. The sentence on the reverse is a bit weird syntactically. He says "Nur Euch zu schützen will ich mit diesem mich rüsten". "Only you to protect i want with this arm me". would be the word for word translation. Does he mean the "Reich" with "with this"?

Frankly the German made limited sense to me. AltaVista translates it as "ONLY I WANT YOU TO CONTACTORS WITH THIS ME PREPARATION". Given the symbols I took it to mean that the new king was asking all the people of Prussia to assist him in his new efforts. That was totally a guess of course since that translation is somewhat nonsensical in English.

The online translations rock!

Well, I think he means, that by arming himself with the Reich he only wants to protect the people. The lower portion of the coin reads: Das Reich erhalten den 16 November 1797. That means: The Reich (Empire) received on the 16th November 1797. I guess there is a single context behind those two lines. The syntax is horrible tho.

It could of course also mean all the things the person on the coin has around him. The glorious history of the holy roman empire (Roman helmet) and the past before that (Greek helmet, the rod of Asklepios, a Greek shield, a Lyre... The rest I cannot recognize). Maybe they had managed to create a connection between their family (or the Reich) and ancient Rome (through the Holy Roman Empire)/ Greece (Don't know how... Maybe over Aeneas, who fled to Rome. I think this connection had been used by the French at some point.) . I don't really know my way around Preussen and how they used history and mythology at the time.

Some nice insights though. The date is when his father died and Frederick William III (Friedrich Wilhelm III) became king. I've always loved Loos' work and try to pick up everything by him I can. Unfortunately I don't have a specific reference, besides Forrer, for his body of work. In fact Forrer actually refers to this medal as The Death of Frederick William II, though I think it perhaps has more to do with the son.

Well, I just wrote whatever came to my mind. Wish I knew more (i. e. anything) about it.

Keep the nice ones coming!

Elverno, where'd you go? I miss seeing your medals and jetons!