Coins of the Hundred Days (1815)

A hundred and ten days, three denominations

The timeline fits into a handful of dates. Napoleon landed at Golfe-Juan on 1 March 1815 and reached the Tuileries Palace on the evening of 20 March. He was defeated at Waterloo on 18 June, abdicated on 22 June, and Louis XVIII was back in Paris on 8 July.

In that short span the mints engraved no new design. They took up the Empire punches again, those of the laureate head with the ‘EMPIRE FRANÇAIS’ reverse, and simply changed the date. Only three denominations were struck: the gold 20 francs, the silver 5 francs and the silver 2 francs.

The catalogues consulted list no 40 francs dated 1815: Napoleon’s last 40 francs is from 1813. The Le Franc catalogue lists give no Hundred Days franc, half franc or quarter franc either. For the small silver coins of the previous years, see the page on the silver francs of Napoleon I.

Paris, Limoges, and a Strasbourg of a few thousand

The 20 francs came from only three mints: Paris (A), Bayonne (L) and Lille (W). Paris alone supplied more than nine coins in ten; the 1815 W, at under ten thousand pieces, is the hardest to find.

The 5 francs was spread more widely. Eight mints struck it, and the leader was not Paris but Limoges, with nearly 600,000 coins. At the other end, the BB mint produced only 3,723: this is the date collectors look for first in the series.

The 2 francs is the extreme case. It was struck only in Paris, in fewer than seven thousand pieces, which makes it much scarcer than the gold 20 francs of the same year. You can recognise it by the cockerel engraved before the date, next to the letter A.

To read the mint letter and the privy mark, a ×10 loupe and light from the side are enough; our French guide to reading a coin shows where to look.

Four checks for a coin dated 1815

A coin of 1815 can belong to either side. Louis XVIII had coins struck before Napoleon’s return, and again after July. Both series share the same weight and size. Yet four simple checks settle the question.

• The name. ‘NAPOLEON EMPEREUR’ on one side, ‘LOUIS XVIII ROI DE FRANCE’ on the other.
• The portrait. The Emperor wears a laurel wreath and faces right. The King is bareheaded, in court dress, with the star of the Order of the Holy Spirit on his chest.
• The reverse. A laurel wreath surrounds ‘FRANCS’ for Napoleon; a crowned shield with three fleurs-de-lis replaces it for Louis XVIII.
• The edge. ‘DIEU PROTEGE LA FRANCE’ for the Empire, ‘DOMINE SALVUM FAC REGEM’ for the King.

One detail often misleads: the figure 5 recut over a 4. It appears on Napoleon’s 20 francs from Paris, but also on royal 20 francs from Bordeaux, Bayonne and Perpignan, so it is not a hallmark of the Hundred Days. Finally, on a 20 francs dated 1815, the letter R stands for London, where coins were struck for Louis XVIII: never for the Emperor that year.

Wear, burnished flans and tampering

These coins circulated for a long time. On the laureate head, wear first erases the veins of the leaves and the locks above the ear, then flattens the cheek. On the reverse, the leaves of the wreath turn smooth, and the small privy mark near the date can almost vanish.

In Paris, some 20 and 5 francs were also struck on burnished flans, with mirror-like fields. The burnished 5 francs has a plain edge without lettering: this is not a fault.

Rare dates attract tampering. An 1814 whose last digit has been scraped and re-engraved would be a false date: the 5 should have the same relief and the same toning as the other figures. Weigh, measure, and compare the edge with a genuine Empire coin. Do not clean anything; our French guide to storing coins explains why.