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| Coin pix | Coin comments | Historical comments |
 5 Francs of Louis 18th 1814-A 1st or Military Bust type proof-like gem uncirculated (Spink's auction: London, ca 2000) |
One reason why I love French coins is that it is possible to form a complete set of all their large silver crowns of the 19th century**, in uncirculated condition, 'relatively' inexpensively. There are still some issues I am lacking from this page, these are ChasX 1st type, L.Phillipe 1st type, 2nd Rep Ceres, L.Napoleon Fr. Republic, 3rd Rep Ceres Head non-Paris ** those issues after 1810 |
Deus Meo! He said
that just as all his soldiers deserted to join the newly arrived Napoleon
Bonaparte. |
 5 Francs of Louis 18th 1816-A 2nd or non-military Bust type select uncirculated |
reverse |
A now much humbler Louis
18th decides on a non-military portrait for the coinage after being put
back in office by the British Allies. |
 5 Francs of Charles X 1825 (unc) (Heritage auctions, ca 1996) |
For some strange reason nobody ever gets excited about 5F's of Charles X. Someone (maybe it was George Sobin) told me that a lot of Chas X coins were melted as right after him people found a way to extract residual amounts of gold from silver alloy. Thus all the pre-1830 silver could be melted down and processed, the gold retained, and the silver sold back for it's cost. I believe there was a minor stylistic change from the initial issue of 1824? |
Charles X was a reactionary. This means that he was going back to the old absolute type monarchy. He was forced from power in (July? : the French always have their Revolutions in July) 1830. |
 5 Francs of Louis Philippe 1847 (unc) |
This coin was struck late in his reign. |
Known as "the Gentleman King", L. Phillipe tried to rule as a good gentleman rather than as a King. |
 5 Francs 2nd Republic 1849 (unc) (Karl Stephens, CA, 1998?) |
This is an example of a really neat type which is (or used to be) dirt cheap in choice unc. |
There was a Revolution |
Napoleon III and His Carnival Empireby John Bierman 1988 |
Napoleon IIINapoleon III was elected President of the New Republic in 1852 after his 3rd attempt to gain power. Although he ruled autocratically he did a lot of things to modernize France. He was also fascinated by England and he & his wife, the empress Eugenie visited Queen Victoria's court in 1855, he also visited the United States. However he was very susceptable to pursuasion by hiw wife who wanted to create a European Kingdom out of Mexico. Napoleon told his wife "I would like to... but it's impossible". No European power would risk a war with the US in America by violating the Monroe Doctrine. However in 1861 many European leaders believed that the South would win our Civil War. Thus France placed an Austrian Prince, Maximilian over the Mexican Republic.After 18 years Napoleon III was begining to return his powers back to the French parliment. However a diplomatic incident caused war to break out with Germany. While the armies were comparable in strength, the French mobilization was very disorganized and equipment and supplies could not reach the units. Also Nap III was very ill at the time and the generals under him were very disorganized. Thus the French Army was surrounded and defeated at Sedan in 1870. | |
 10 Centemes Napoleon III 1853 (unc) (Karl Stephens, CA, 1998?) |
This is an example of a type which I used to find
worn flat in dealer's junk boxes for 50cents. Also my Dad got one of
these in change possibly when he was in the service which he gave me as one
of my 1st foreign coins. |
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 5 Francs Napoleon III 1870 (unc) (Karl Stephens, CA, 1998?) |
This is an example of a really neat type which is
(or used to be) dirt cheap in choice unc. |
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20 francs Napoleon III 1868 (unc) (Karl Stephens, CA, 1998?) |
This is actually almost bullion coin but has a small premium for being ms. |
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5 Francs Napoleon IV 1874 (unc) () |
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Louis Napoleon IV was the only son of Napoleon III and his empress. He went off to get military experience in a British colonial war (the Zululand War) but was killed in a skirmish in 1879. This coin was issued when he reached his majority of 18. Possibly, if he had survived, he would have become President, or Emperor of France? |
 5 Francs Ceres Head 1870-A uncirculated (my estimate ms-63) (Stacks Auction, New York Intnl, Jan 2005) |
These coins (without reverse legend) were struck then while the rest of the country struck a different type of 5 francs (with reverse legend). |
The Paris Commune, just after the loss of the French Army at Sedan. The German Army surrounded Paris and placed it under seige. Since it was surrounded Paris couldn't coordinate their coin designs with the rest of the country. Thus this type, struck in Paris, is different from the other Ceres Heads, due to the missing reverse legend. |
5 Francs 1873-A Hercules group uncirculated |
I can't believe I couldn't have found a nicer one than this in 1989!!! |
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