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S & T: Sardinia Cr117.2 - 100 lire 1835

Started by Figleaf, April 30, 2007, 04:12:31 PM

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Figleaf

This is by far the largest gold coin in my collection. However, its emotional value exceeds its market value.

Carlo Alberto was a complicated person. He wrote constitutions and fought against those who wanted them. He called himself liberator of Italians but opposed Mazzini. He joined other republicans in their fight against the Austria-controlled parts of Italy yet fought with Austria against Spanish liberals.

It all made sense from his point of view. He saw the old autocratic order tumble and realized that the way to preserve monarchies from liberal republicans was a liberal constitution. His tragedy is that his ideas came to early. While his life must have seemed like a string of failures when he died, his ideals were all realized after his death. His son, Vittorio Emanuele II became constitutional king of a united Italy that had beaten back the Austrians and the pope. Maybe even more amazing, Carlo Alberto may have been the cleverist ruler of the house of Savoy ever, with the possible exception of Umberto II, of whom we know too little to judge. As for the claimants to the throne, read headlines here to get an idea of the level of their stupidity.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.