elverno

½ Skilling token, Sweden 28mm Link This appears to be a copper mining company's private token and was noted as such by the seller. If anyone has more information or an accurate translation of the legend I'd appreciate hearing from you.

Thanks. Actually I didn't think it did the coin justice. But I like the one light setting I've been using for several months now as the color is pretty accurate.

1789 1 Heller, Further Austria 16.5mm Link This is pretty obviously from the Gunzburg mint in Burgau but I was unable to find the Krause listing.

1809 King George III Enters the Fiftieth Year of His Reign, Great Britain. BHM 644 37mm Link Ex-jewelry, fairly rare in silver.

1809 Cercle littéraire à Lyon, France. Bramsen 914 d'Essling 1953 31mm Link I think this is just a beautiful design. I got lucky, it's original and cost only $23 including shipping.

1814 Congress of Vienna, German States Bramsen 1527 33mm Link Silvered brass. Quite rare. An interesting Lauer jeton that features eight (!) busts on the obverse. The reverse talks about the Establishment of General Peace and shows a woman kneeling before Justice with a genie (a symbol of Victory usually) flying nearby. The background of the reverse is a multitude of churches. The Congress of Vienna was the political peace process following Napoleon's abdication in 1814 and later in 1815 as well. Nearly everyone who was anyone was there and the place was jumping with balls and other forms of entertainment. The real negotiations took place in back rooms with very few people involved. Ironically France was a major player because the Allies had made a point of saying they were fighting Napoleon not France. The French negotiator Talleyrand called that bluff at the Congress when they tried to exclude France from the table. Many of the little German states were finally eliminated at the Congress, merged into fewer, more viable states. In this the Allies were simply carrying on with Napoleon's plan. His relatively neat mind rebelled against the 300+ German states he encountered when first coming to power and by the end there were well under 50. It also wasn't a "done deal" that Napoleon was out as this contemporary print clearly shows. Talleyrand is under the table hiding from his former master and the rest are carving up Europe as fast as they can go! The comment by Talleyrand is a joke about his deformed foot, the result of an accident as an infant.

1802 Manchester & Salford Volunteers, Great Britain 36mm Link A beautiful medal issued locally for officers and possibly rich volunteers serving in the ranks of a militia raised to resist the French if they invaded. Fortunately for these groups they never had to face the French Army, particularly the one trained to take them on. That army ultimately crushed the Austrians and Russians at Austerlitz. Ok, it wasn't cheap.

1803 Electoral Freedom, Great Britain BHM 552 37mm Link Rigging elections was fairly common in Great Britain during the French Revolution and First Empire period. One method was known as 'rotten' boroughs, elections for a member of Parliament where only one or a handful of voters made the decision. In the case of this medal Birch and a man named Warren were elected in what passed for a fair election. However they were opposed to the government then in power so it was decided that there had been irregularities and that a re-election was needed. Not surprisingly when the election took place Birch was out and the government man named Coke was in. Each side produced medals in the period between elections with this one being the more common of the two.

1796 8 Tornesi, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies 31.5mm Link Krause calls this country Naples & Sicily but the contemporary name was the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The Bourbon rulers of this country were perhaps the ugliest pair of all time; which is saying something for the 18th century.

1811 1 Penny token, Great Britain 36mm Link Like the 1797 cartwheels these private penny tokens weighed in at an ounce of copper. They're really too heavy to carry more than a few in your pockets, at least without pulling your pants down.

1809 1 Kreuzer, Tyrolean Insurrection 24.5mm Link Not a great example but at least it fills the hole.

1796 1 Kreuzer, Nurnberg 15.5mm Link Not great pics but a nice coin.

1813 1 Lira, Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy 22mm Link Milan mint, just a step above filler.

1918 25 cents, USA

1793 2 Reales, Bourbon Kingdom of Spain 25.5mm Link

Got the 1791 7 kreuzer today and it was even better than I expected. Thanks Bill!

1791 7 Kreuzer, Canton of Freiburg 19.5mm Link Purchased from our own Blackhawk. Thanks!

1796 1 Heller, Saxony 17.25mm Link

Thanks. Weird color though isn't it? At first I thought it might be a copper counterfeit but the weight's correct. Almost like it lived part of its life in a cigar smoker's collection...

1789 ½ Thaler, Hesse-Cassel 28mm Link

Thanks, I like pieces like this one. Cornwallis is particularly interesting to me because of his disaster at Yorktown and then later showing up as a diplomat.

1801 Preliminaries for the Peace of Amiens, Great Britain BHM 517 25mm RR Link

1806 3 Groschen, East Prussia 18mm Link

1794 ½ Stuber, Julich-Berg 25.75mm Link

1795 3 Kreuzer, Wurzburg Death of Bishop Franz Ludwig 20.5mm Link These little 3 kreuzer pieces were issued throughout the 18th century when the Bishops passed away.