Napoleon Bonaparte Coins on the Anniversary of Waterloo

[DonnaML]

6 minutes ago, robinjojo said:

Nice medals , Donna!

Napoleon I was not known for his modest and diffident personality, to be sure!   

Thanks. Probably he was no worse in that regard than your average Roman Emperor! The story that he supposedly visited Charlemagne's tomb and took his sword from the tomb to wear at his coronation reminds me of the various stories of Roman Emperors visiting Alexander's tomb.  And then, of course, when Hitler entered Paris he was deliberately reminding the French of Napoleon's entry into Berlin.

I am highly dubious, by the way, that Napoleon wore Charlemagne's actual 1,000-year old sword at his coronation. The swords I've seen that are that old look like they would shatter if you touched them, never mind wore them! Does anyone know if that sword still exists?

Edited July 6, 2022 by DonnaML

[DonnaML]

1 hour ago, DonnaML said:

Thanks. Probably he was no worse in that regard than your average Roman Emperor! The story that he supposedly visited Charlemagne's tomb and took his sword from the tomb to wear at his coronation reminds me of the various stories of Roman Emperors visiting Alexander's tomb.  And then, of course, when Hitler entered Paris he was deliberately reminding the French of Napoleon's entry into Berlin.

I am highly dubious, by the way, that Napoleon wore Charlemagne's actual 1,000-year old sword at his coronation. The swords I've seen that are that old look like they would shatter if you touched them, never mind wore them! Does anyone know if that sword still exists?

Here's the Wikipedia article on Charlemagne's sword: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyeuse .  Whether the sword in the Louvre is really the original or not, Napoleon certainly didn't open Charlemagne's tomb to get it!

[DonnaML]

A recently-arrived specimen of the miniature silver coronation medals for Napoleon, thrown to the crowds outside the ceremony.

France, AR Miniature Medal, First Empire, Coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte, 1804 [2 December]. Artists: Jean-Bertrand Andrieu, Romain-Vincent Jeuffroy, and Dominique-Vivant Denon [names not engraved, unlike full-sized version]. Obv. Laureate head of Napoleon right, NAPOLEON - EMPEREUR / Rev. Napoleon, wearing imperial robes, holding long eagle-tipped scepter in right hand and wearing the sword of Charlemagne on his left side, stands facing on shield held aloft by Roman Senator to left and French farmer-soldier to right. Behind Roman Senator in left field an open book [stating on full-sized medals “LOIS, LOIS”]; behind farmer-soldier in right field is a plowshare. Above, LE SENAT – ET LE PEUPLE; in exergue, AN XIII [1804/1805]. Bramsen I 329 at p. 55 [Ludvig Ernst Bramsen, Médaillier Napoléon le Grand, ou, Description des médailles, clichés, repoussés, et médailles-décorations relatives aux affaires de la France pendant le consulat et l'empire, Vol. I, 1799-1809, at p. 55 (Copenhagen 1904), available at Neuman Numismatic Portal]; Laskey XLI at p. 76 [Capt. J.C. Laskey, A Description of the Series of Medals Struck at the National Medal Mint by Order of Napoleon Bonaparte (London 1818), available on Google Books]; Millin & Millingen 86 at p. 32 (ill. Pl. XXXII) [Aubin Louis Millin de Grandmaison & James Millingen, Medallic History of Napoleon (London 1819), available on Google Books] (“The small medals were thrown by the heralds among the people”); Julius 1269 at p. 79 [Sammlung Dr. [Paul] Julius, Heidelberg: Französische Revolution Napoleon I. und seine Zeit : Medaillen, Orden und Ehrenzeichen, Münzen (Auktion 11 Jan. 1932, Otto Helbing Nachf., München, Auktions-Katalog 66), available at Newman Numismatic Portal (this sale did not take place; the Julius Collection was not sold until 1959. 14 mm., 1.25 g. Purchased from Guy Braun, Landivisiau, Finistère, France, Oct. 2022.*

 

*The depiction of Napoleon raised on a shield at his coronation reflects “an old Frankish custom reported of Clovis, the founder of the Merovingian kingdom.” (Todd p. 107 [Richard A. Todd, Napoleon’s Medals: Victory to the Arts (The History Press, UK, 2009)].) Regarding the sword of Charlemagne, see id. p. 114 n. 1: “Napoleon had taken the sword from Charlemagne’s tomb at Aix-la-Chapelle. General Count de Ségur, Memoirs of an Aide-de-Camp of Napoleon 1800-1812, revised by his grandson, trans. by H.A. Patchett-Martin. New York, 1895, p. 136.”

As a comparison, here is my example of the full-sized medal in bronze (40 mm., 31.1 g.):

Edited October 24, 2022 by DonnaML

[panzerman]

Fantastic medals/ Donna☺️

I am late to thread/ here are some mine from one of the greatest military captains....

#1 AV 40 Francs 1811-A ex/ Lissner Collection Premier Empire 1804-14

#2 AV 40 Lire 1814-M Milan Mint/ Kingdom of Italy 1808-14

#3 AV 20 Francs L'An 12 Premier Consul 1799-1804

[DonnaML]

Here is another Napoleon coronation medal, recently purchased on Ebay -- which I don't use for ancient coins but still sometimes peruse for "modern" coins and medals. This one commemorates his crowning as King of Italy in 1805:

France, AE Medal, First Empire, Coronation of Napoleon I at Milan as King of Italy, 23 May 1805. Obv. Laureate head right, NAPOLEON - EMPEREUR; beneath truncation in two lines, DENON DIR. | ANDRIEU F. / Rev. Iron crown of Kings of Lombards, with circlet of gold and jewels; on lower rim of crown, inscription reading AGILVLFVS • GRATIA • DEI • GLORIOSVS • REX; above crown, NAPOLEON • ROI • D’ITALIE •; in exergue in three lines, COURONNÉ • A • MILAN • LE • XXIII • MAI • M • DCCCV •; below, DENON •  DT - JALEY •  FT •. 40 mm., 35.10 g. Bramsen I 418 p. 68 [Ludvig Ernst Bramsen, Médaillier Napoléon le Grand, ou, Description des médailles, clichés, repoussés, et médailles-décorations relatives aux affaires de la France pendant le consulat et l'empire, Vol. I, 1799-1809, at pp. 88-89 (Copenhagen 1904), available at Neuman Numismatic Portal]; Millin & Millingen 96 pp. 35-36 (Ill. Pl. XXXIII) ) [Aubin Louis Millin de Grandmaison & James Millingen, Medallic History of Napoleon (London 1819), available on Google Books]; Julius 1380 p. 86 98 [Sammlung Dr. [Paul] Julius, Heidelberg: Französische Revolution Napoleon I. und seine Zeit : Medaillen, Orden und Ehrenzeichen, Münzen (Auktion 11 Jan. 1932, Otto Helbing Nachf., München, Auktions-Katalog 66), available at Newman Numismatic Portal (this sale did not take place; the Julius Collection was not sold until 1959)]; Laskey 49 pp. 88-89 [Capt. J.C. Laskey, A Description of the Series of Medals Struck at the National Medal Mint by Order of Napoleon Bonaparte (London 1818), available on Google Books]; Zeitz 49 [Napoleons Medaillen (Petersberg Imhof 2003)]; Todd p. 114 (with rev. ill.) [Richard A. Todd, Napoleon’s Medals: Victory to the Arts (The History Press, UK, 2009)]. Purchased from Ancient Galleon LLC, Villanova, PA, March 2023.*

 

*Obv. portrait by Jean-Bertrand Andrieu (1761-1822); rev. design by Louis Jaley (1763–1838); also signed by Dominique-Vivant Denon (1747-1825), Director of Medal Mint (as well as Director of Louvre Museum). See the discussion of this medal at Todd, op. cit., p. 114, with an illustration of the reverse: 

“Another medal pictures the crown of Agilulfus, the ancient Lombard king (592-615), a circlet of gold and jewels over an iron ring, said to have been forged from one of the nails that had pierced Christ’s hand. The inscription reads AGILVLFVS. GRATIA. DEI. GLORIOSVS. REX. The crown was brought from the cathedral of Monza to Milan by an escort of the Guard and of citizens of Monza. [Citing Le Moniteur, 1 June 1805.] Napoleon was following in the footsteps of Charlemagne who in 774 had conquered the Lombards and assumed the title ‘King of the Lombards.’ As he placed the crown on his head, Napoleon spoke the traditional words of the Lombard ceremony, ‘God has given it to me; let him beware who touches it.’ [In French, ‘Dieu me la donne, gare à qui la touche.’] Napoleon was now Emperor of France and King of Italy.”

[Kali]

Napoleon Bonaparte (1804-1814)

France AR 5 Francs
O: Head right.
R: Value in wreath, date below.
Bayonne Mint
36mm
25g
Badoury 583. Dav. 84, KM# 686.8

Rare Mint for this Date

[DonnaML]

I have amended my post above from earlier today, describing my recently-purchased Napoleon coronation medal commemorating his 1805 crowning as King of Italy in Milan, to add a reference to a new English-language catalog of Napoleonic medals that I discovered late this afternoon.  The additional citation is to David Thomason Alexander, A Napoleonic Medal Primer (2022), No. 52 (discussed at p. 78; ill. p. 79) (available at https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/618630). The book, which was published last September, is available for viewing and download at the Newman Numismatic Portal, at the stated link. One can also purchase a hard copy on Amazon for $45. It contains 187 color illustrations of Napoleonic medals, including this one of the Italian coronation medal at p. 79:

So far, I'm finding the book to be very useful and informative. And the price can't be beaten!

The author, who writes for Coin World (he writes the  monthly “The Research Desk” column), and has published other books on medals, is apparently quite well-known, although I'm not familiar with him. This is what appears to be a press release in the 12.25.2022 issue of The E-Sylum, announcing the book: 

https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n52a04.html

"Medals recording the meteoric career of Napoleon Bonaparte have fascinated collectors for more than two centuries. The Monnaie de Paris has produced the majority of existing Napoleonic pieces and continues striking many today, including many such later issues as the 1840 Retour des Cendres and the 2021 Bicentenary of the Emperor's death. In all this time there has never been a comprehensive English language survey of the Napoleonic series to introduce the American collector to this fascinating subject. This book does not pretend to include every Napoleonic medal ever issued, but presents a survey to aid beginning or advanced collectors wishing to explore this fascinating field.

The title, The Napoleonic Medal Primer, has been chosen to express what this book is and is not. Napoléon Bonaparte (born 1769, died 1821) bestrode the world of his day like a colossus and left behind one of history's most extensive medallic fossil records which has continued to grow centuries after his death on the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena.

This book will offer an introduction to and survey of medals of Napoleonic interest from the French Revolution to modern times, and is directed in large measure toward American collectors. The term Primer, pronounced Primmer in the UK and Pry-mer in the U.S., has been chosen to avoid suggesting that this is an encyclopedic coverage of all Napoleonic material, which would include significantly more medals than can be covered here.

This work is initially built on medals that the author has personally collected, examined, cataloged and recorded since the early 1950s, in other words, a record of what is known to exist. The text is directed toward but not certainly limited to the particular needs of both beginning and experienced collectors, including a basic medallic vocabulary, to present and clarify the use of terms that often baffle collectors coming over from the world of coins. Particular attention will be paid to clarifying the restrike issue, contrasting Paris Mint practice with the limited and restrictive American understanding of this troublesome term.

Similarly, the critical role of PATINAS used on Copper and Bronze medals over the centuries will be addressed, along with description of the all-important EDGE MARKINGS of Paris Mint medals and their relation to dating

Author David Thomason Alexander became interested in medals in the 1950s. He founded Medal Collectors of America in 1998 as the first American organization devoted to collectors of U.S. and world art and commemorative medals. His earlier works include American Art Medals 1909-1995 (American Numismatic Society, 1995) and Medals of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans... an Under-utilized Resource in American Medallic Art (Newman Numismatic Portal, 2019).

ASIN : B0BLCQ5R9N
Publisher : Independently published (November 2, 2022)
Language : English
Paperback : 189 pages
ISBN-13 : 979-8359099264
Item Weight : 1.24 pounds
Dimensions : 8.5 x 0.45 x 11 inches

Author Alexander adds:

"It is an endless question why this has not been attempted before in modern times... In describing his pioneer work with U.S, Presidential Inaugural Medals, the late Joe Levine stated his belief that the American collector shied away from open-ended medal areas, vastly preferring series with clear beginnings and endings. Hopefully we'll attract collectors motivated by this idea!

"Thanks are due to Lianna Spurrier, our compositor and layout genius, to whose marvelous skill we owe Napoleon's success!"

For more information, or to order, see:
A Napoleonic Medal Primer Paperback (https://www.amazon.com/Napoleonic-Medal-Primer-Thomason-Alexander/dp/B0BLCQ5R9N/ref=sr_1_1)

To read on the Newman Numismatic Portal, see:
A Napoleonic Medal Primer (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/618630)."

Even those uninterested in Napoleonic medals might enjoy this excerpt from the introduction to the book, at p. 8:

"When I obtained my first medals in the early 1950s, I quickly learned that no medal catalogs or references were available in Miami, Florida, or anywhere else to assist a young collector. There was one active dealer in town who presided over the Hobby Shop in the Shoreland Arcade, the three-story stump of what was to have been a 22-story office tower begun just as the great Florida Boom collapsed in 1926.

His shop handled model planes and cars, stamps and such coin books as then existed. The coins themselves occupied the left-hand row of glass counters in the shadow of a magnificent safe which announced in imposing gold-leaf lettering FREDERICK A. NEWMAN – PHILATELIST, NUMISMATIST. I learned that he had been an active coin dealer during the commemorative boom of the 1930s, and had many engaging eccentricities including an epic distaste for all other coin dealers!

He had treasures: five-cent, 25-cent and 69-cent “junk boxes.” With money raised from selling the Miami Daily News and returning two-cent and five-cent deposit bottles, my brother John and I bought scores of great things. One day a glint of gold caught my eye, digging toward it I found a bright golden piece about the size of a nickel bearing a laureate head with forbidding expression and legend NAPOLEON EMPEREUR.

A million boyish thoughts came boiling up! Could it be?? Might it actually be… a Gold coin??? What’s this on the reverse? A laurel wreath enclosing JETON… a mere card game gambling piece, brass… Negligible value then and now, but enough to launch years of questioning and research. “From tiny acorns…”

My first French medal came from the 69-cent junk box soon after. . . ."

Edited April 6, 2023 by DonnaML

[DonnaML]

Another Napoleon medal; I think I like the reverse design the best of all the ones I have. Perhaps I'm wrong -- unlike my son, I'm not an art historian! -- but to me it seems almost like it could be something from the 1930s.

France, AE Medal, First Empire, Mont Blanc School of Mines, 1805 (original strike, no hallmark). Obv. by Bertrand Andrieu: Laureate head right, NAPOLEON - EMPEREUR; beneath truncation in two lines, DENON DIR. | ANDRIEU F. [fecit] / Rev. by Nicolas Guy Antoine Brenet: A figure of an old man of colossal size, personifying the mountain of Mont Blanc; he appears in a crouching attitude, blind from age, with his bald head penetrating and capped with clouds; his right hand grasps a gigantic rock, under which appears a cavern with miners working within; his left hand, in repose, lies across his left thigh; water flows from rocks and from his long beard to feed rivers at the base of the mountain, where his left foot rests; in exergue in two lines, ECOLE DES MINES DU | MONT BLANC; above exergue on raised edge of ground line, BRENET F. to left and DENON D. to right / Edge: “34” written in old ink on edge (probably a reference to the medal’s catalog number in Laskey 1818, infra). 40 mm., 38.52 g.  Bramsen I 471 pp. 77-78 [Ludvig Ernst Bramsen, Médaillier Napoléon le Grand, ou, Description des médailles, clichés, repoussés, et médailles-décorations relatives aux affaires de la France pendant le consulat et l'empire, Vol. I, 1799-1809, at pp. 88-89 (Copenhagen 1904), available at Neuman Numismatic Portal]; Millin & Millingen 79 p. 30 (Ill. Pl. XXIII) ) [Aubin Louis Millin de Grandmaison & James Millingen, Medallic History of Napoleon (London 1819), available on Google Books]; Julius 1498 p. 92 [Sammlung Dr. [Paul] Julius, Heidelberg: Französische Revolution Napoleon I. und seine Zeit : Medaillen, Orden und Ehrenzeichen, Münzen (Auktion 11 Jan. 1932, Otto Helbing Nachf., München, Auktions-Katalog 66), available at Newman Numismatic Portal); Laskey 34 pp. 68-69 [Capt. J.C. Laskey, A Description of the Series of Medals Struck at the National Medal Mint by Order of Napoleon Bonaparte (London 1818), available on Google Books]; Zeitz 34 p. 94 (ill. p. 95) [Lisa & Joachim Zeitz, Napoleons Medaillen (Petersberg Imhof 2003)]. Purchased from Münzenhandlung Wolfgang Rittig, Schwelm, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, April 2023 (with old German-language coin ticket from a previous owner, with purchase date 1971).*

 

The names of Brenet and Denon on the reverse can be seen only when viewing the medal from its edge. This photo shows the names, and also gives an idea of the medal's three-dimensionality:

The inked number on the edge probably represents the medal's Laskey number (also used in Zeitz), based on a list of the Napoleon Medals available for purchase at the Monnaie de Paris (i.e., the Paris Mint) in 1815: 

*This medal commemorates the establishment of a school of mineralogy in the Department of Mont Blanc. According to Zeitz (see p. 94), the medal’s reverse design was announced on 12 Feb, 1802, the die was completed by Brenet in May 1805, and a specimen was presented to Napoleon’s Council of Mines on 16 Feb. 1806. Both Laskey and Millingen suggest that the reverse design was inspired by the famous 11-meter high 16^th century “Apennine Colossus” statue by the Flemish sculptor Giambologna (Jean de Boulogne), located in Tuscany, intended as a personification of the Apennine Mountains. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apennine_Colossus and the photos of the Colossus at that page, e.g. the following:

 

There is undeniably a resemblance.

Finally, if anyone can decipher the lines on the old coin ticket next to which I've placed red dots, I would certainly appreciate it:

 

Edited April 24, 2023 by DonnaML