elverno

I've got a 1751 and a couple of awful pieces from 1781 and 1782.

1789 Bread Penny, Cologne 20 Kreuzer, Bavaria ½ Thaler, Hesse-Cassel 1 Heller, Further Austria And others will need to take over!

1808 1 Heller, Bavaria 14mm Link

1918 25 Centimes, Belgium

Oh that GW!!!

1790 Munster, 2 pfenning 1 Sol, Luxembourg 1/12 Thaler, Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel 1 Kreuzer, Salzburg

1792 12 Heller, Aachen ½ Penny Conder Token, Great Britain 12 Denier, France 1 Grossus, Poland 5 Sols Monneron token, France

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”

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...

1794 ½ Penny Conder Token. John of Gaunt, Great Britain This was the height of both the Terror in France and the issuing of "Conder" tokens. 20 Kreuzer, Austria 1 Pfennig, Anhalt-Bernberg 4 Pfenning, Saxe-Hildburghausen

1796 Farthing Though technically it passed as money it really was political satire. 1 Pfenning, Waldeck-Pyrmont 32 Shillinge, Lübeck 20 Kreuzer, Salzburg

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.

1801 1 Pfenning, Lowenstein-Wertheim 30 Soldi (1 1/2 Lira), Cisalpine Republic 2 Kopecks, Russia

1812 6 Pfennig, Schwarzburg—Rudolstadt 15.5mm Link

And a nice run indeed!

1802 2 Kopecks, Russia 7 Kreuzer, Austria Overstruck on 1795 12 kreuzer 1 Kreuzer, Brandenburg- Ansbach - Bayreuth 5 Francs, Subalpine Republic

1808 1 Kreuzer, Canton of Thurgau 20 Kreuzer, Austria 1 Lire, Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy 1 Creutzer, Canton of Neuchâtel X Cash, British East India.

1809 32 Shilling, Hamburg 20 Kreuzer, Austria 20 Franks, Westphalia (Paris mint) 20 Kreuzer, Tyrolean Insurrection This pic doesn't do the coin justice!

In a word, WOW!

1810 5 Francs, France. Ok, so just ignore me and post your stuff from 1789-> 1815 whenever appropriate. Pretend I'm not here...

Thanks Frank. Of course I don't own much out of the zone and there are some wonderful coins others own that ought to get seen. So I'm trying to restrain myself!

1811 10 Soldi, Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy 1 Kreuzer, Baden-Durlach Demi-franc, France Peseta, Napoleonic Kingdom of Spain

1812 3 Centimes, Westphalia 3 Kreuzer, Austria 3 Pfenning, Reuss-Greitz 12 Skilling, Sweden 10 Reales, Napoleonic Kingdom of Spain