102905 | FRANCE. Napoléon I silver Jeton.
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102905 | FRANCE. Napoléon I silver Jeton. Issued 1806 for the city hall of Rouen (32mm, 15.00 g, 12h). By J.-P. Droz and D. V. Denon at the Paris mint.
NAPOLEON EMPEREUR ET ROI, laureate head right // Mercury (representing commerce) seated right upon package, and holding caduceus and overturned cornucopia; in two lines in exergue, HOTEL DE VILLE / DE ROUEN. Edge: Plain.
Bramsen 592; Julius 1670; d'Essling 2291. Mint State. Lightly toned and pleasingly brilliant in the fields.
Among the numerous jetons issued predominantly during the 18th and 19th centuries in France, certain professions tend to stand out. These jetons, dissimilar to their counterparts from prior centuries, which may have had some numismatic function as well as reckoning use, had far less utilitarian appeal. Instead, as James McClellan notes in his work, Old Regime France and its Jetons: Pointillist History and Numismatics, "...the historical and numismatic interest in jetons stems more from what else they became, particularly though the end of the eighteenth century under the Bourbon monarchs, as perks of office for office holders in the burgeoning nation state of France, New Year’s Day presents exchanged among certain segments of society, and lagniappe handed out for attendance at meetings in town halls, regional estates, and learned societies. Jetons figured in the rites and rituals of the guilds and faculties; they were swag for general meetings of the clergy, and they served as calling cards for noble families. Decoding hidden messages became a parlor game for cognoscenti, and as “petit monuments” some jetons are miniature works of high art produced by the world’s most talented artists/engravers at the world’s preeminent mint."
This type is among those issued for the "hotels de ville," or city halls of locales all across France, serving in that role of "party favor" or calling card passed around during various functions.
Upload: 3 September 2024.
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