S & T French emergency issue

[Figleaf]

France, one décime 1814 struck in Strasbourg in the name of Napoléon I.

Brassy bronze (métal de cloche), 20 grams, 32 mm. Emergency issue 1814-1815, withdrawn by decree of 12th March 1856 demonetized 1st October 1856. Total struck  666,672, of which 1814 480,411. Sub-type with stops after denomination and date.

obv: imperial crown with two ribbons above N in wreath of oak (strength)
rev: denomination, date and mint mark in wreath of oak.

This is not an obsidional coin but an emergency issue. Strasbourg's famous siege took place in 1870.

Napoléon's Russian campaign had ended in disaster, driving his enemies together while he retreated to France. Faced with the large numerical superiority of his enemies, he was stil able to beat them in every battle of the long retreat. It didn't save him. He was at long last recognized as a slaughterer of Frenchmen and deserted by the Parisian politicians, who forced him to abdicate in 1814, but couldn't force him to face reality.

The Bourbons were a political disaster. In the words of Talleyrand: "they have learned nothing and they have forgiven nothing". No wonder that in 1815, Napoléon could make an improbable comeback. Once more, he was heavily outnumbered, this time in Waterloo, where a bronze lion still stands guard.

In those dramatic months, Strasbourg was virtually isolated from the rest of France, due to its exposed position in the East, on the Rhine and the hills and woods of the Morvan in the West and South-West. Nevertheless, Strasbourg had a mint, the technology to strike coins and apparently a lot of scrap metal and so they went with the prevailing wind. First, they struck for the returning Grande Armée, then for he hapless Louis XVIII, again for the Army of the Rhine and once more for the Bourbon king, all with the same reverse dies.

The denomination décime is decidedly revolutionary. In its urge to introduce the decimal system, France had divided the Franc of 1803 into 10 décimes, each divided in 10 centimes. Benjamin Franklin approved so much of this innovation that he led the fight to have the dollar divided in 10 dismes, of 10 cents each.

Peter

[translateltd]

Brassy bronze (métal de cloche),

"Bell metal" is fine too :-)

[Figleaf]

It misses that je ne sais quoi Besides, Alexander Graham wasn't born yet.

Peter

[translateltd]

It misses that je ne sais quoi Besides, Alexander Graham wasn't born yet.

Peter

At least there's no alloy called "AT&T metal" ...