Milan T. writes: I have a coin dating 1864 from France. It’s a 20fr coin. It has “Napoleon III empereur” and “Empire Francais” written on it. Also very small letters saying “Barre”. Please tell me the history of the coin and it’s value.
French gold 20 francs from the era of Napoleon III were mostly used as trade units. Twenty Franc coins also circulated nationally but were often used as bank reserves or as backing for letters of credit or bank notes. “Barre” is the name of the designer.Â
French 20 Francs as a denomination existed from 1803-1914 struck on planchets of .900 fine gold. The Napoleon III pieces after 1853, followed by “The Angel writing” and then followed by the “Rooster” design (1899 -1914) were made in vast numbers for trade purposes, that is, a way of paying debts across national boundaries. Today, except for a few exceptions, they are essentially bullion coins (the Roosters have been re-struck with dates from 1907-1914).
If you compare the French 20 Franc (.1867 AGW) to the the United States Liberty $5 gold piece (.2419 AGW) you will see that the 20 Franc was worth about 4 dollars in U.S. funds. In the late 1870’s, the U.S. Minister to Austria, Hon. John A. Kasson, introduced the idea of minting a four dollar gold coin in the United States that would be an international trade unit to the French Standard. The U.S. version was not approved by Congress but the surviving patterns that were given to Congressmen as samples to examine, still exist. (The four dollar coin (called “the Stella” because of the prominent Star motif) are highly valued by collectors today).
A note about the contemporary value of these nickel sized gold coins: 20 Francs or a U.S. $5 gold coin was a great deal of money during the 19th century. The approximate buying power was that of a modern U.S. $100 note. Even that value may not accurately describe the purchasing power of these coins, as some items in this era were relatively much cheaper than they are today. For example, in the U.S., a loaf of bread might be a 1 cent and in some places, especially when one was close to the source of production, eggs were 1/2 cent each.
Though your coin dated 1864 is not rare, it does bring a premium over its melt value in uncirculated condition. Rare dates do exist. In the gold bullion business, these coins are known as “Napoleons” and are available in quantity from almost any bullion dealer. It is apparent that the “trade unit” status of these coins continues.
You can determine their approximate value by factoring the pure gold content against the world spot price of gold (.1867 X gold price in dollars).
