2017-01-03 Tue

Napoleon Bonaparte, the French military and political leader, the general during the French Revolution, the ruler of France as First Consul of the French Republic and Emperor of the First French Empire, has many spectacular victories to his name.

He brought about monetary changes after the French Revolution and he is also credited with the establishment of the “Banque de France”, the first Central Bank in French history on 18 January 1800! He also tried to bring about the first monetary standards in Europe.

Napoleon I after declaring himself as the emperor of France issued a copper, silver and gold coins with his name and portrait. The 20 and 40 franc gold coins issued by Napoleon I were called as “Napoleon”, a colloquial term for French gold coins.

These “Napoleonides” or “Napoleons” were originally minted in two denominations, 20 francs, and 40 francs. The 20 francs are 21 mm in diameter, weigh 6.45 grams (gross weight) and, at 90% pure, contain 5.805 grams of pure gold, while the 40 francs 26 mm in diameter, weigh 12.90 grams (gross weight) and; are 90% pure gold.

The 20 francs were more popular than the 40 and hence 40 francs are comparatively rare. These coins were minted in French and some Italian mints also.

To unify his vast Empire, Napoleon wanted to create the first European monetary standard that would be followed uniquely throughout. The Napoleon coin was first authorized by a Monetary Ordinance of 28 March 1803 and was based on a new decimal system (denominated in “francs,” or “franchi”) to be shared throughout his empire. These coins depicted portraits of the emperor or of his relatives.

The minting of these Napoleons continued till the 19th century. Although the portraits and legends changed with the political changes in France, the denomination remained in use until the First World War under what was known as the “Latin Monetary Union”. It was the Euro before the Euro as Switzerland had 20 Swiss franc pieces, Spain had 20 peseta coins, Italy had 20 lira pieces, Belgium had 20 Belgian franc coins, and Greece had 20 drachma coins, all of which circulated and were accepted throughout Europe. Only for political reasons did the United Kingdom and the German Empire refuse to follow this direction.

Today the original 40 francs introduced by Napoleon are very rare and only 18 examples of the type for Italy are known, according to Spinks Auction. One such gold 40-franchi or franc coin of 1810 is part of Spink’s auction in New York City on January 15th, 2017. This coin was struck for Naples and Sicily in Italy, and depicts a Napoleonic relative, Joachim Murat.

Graded Extremely Fine 40 by PCGS, the coin has an estimate of $50,000 to $60,000.