Question about a 1793 coin

Bigrig52

My friend has a 1793 Napoleon Bonapart coin that also says EN EGYPTE on it and JUILLET..The head on it is really raised high and on the other side it looks like someone on a horse on the left side of coin.Is there a special name for this kind of coin and where is it from and is there any value to it..My phone camera is messed up and won't let me download to computer to show you a picture of it.Thanks for your help..

ajaan

Sounds like a medal and not a coin. How big is it?

STLNATS

Sounds like a medal or jeton. Napolean's egypt campaign was in 1798-9 so the date doesn't make sense. Here's the french medal commemorating the conquest of Egypt:



Along the bust is the inscription: "J. JOUANNIN F. DENON D."

lordmarcovan

In 1793, the French were still just getting 'round to the business of decapitating King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and later that year they adopted the Revolutionary calendar, so I doubt it's a French coin from 1793. King Louis would likely still be on it rather than Napoleon, if it was a coin. Napoleon was by then becoming well known but he was not at the top of his power yet. He only made it to Brigadier General by the end of that year.

Chances are, it is a medal commemorating something Napoleon did in Egypt. Your saying "the head on it is really raised high" also indicates it is a medal, since medals are struck in much higher relief than coins.

EN EGYPTE, means, of course "In Egypt". JUILLET is French for July. So something he did in July, in Egypt would be likely what it's all about.

Likely it was struck later than 1793, since anything struck between late 1793 and the year 1806 is more likely to have been dated with the Revolutionary calendar (L'An 1, L'An 2, etc.), instead of a normal AD date. And, as previously mentioned, Napoleon had not yet reached the pinnacle of his fame that early. So perhaps it was struck later, to commemorate something that happened in 1793.

BUT... the 1793 date is confusing. Napoleon was indeed in Egypt, but not until later. He did not set sail for Egypt until 1798, according to the websearch I just made.

Bigrig52

The date looked like 1793 but could have been 1798 or 95

spoon

Here's the full page of info to go with the pic above.

If that's not it, which I don't think it is, we'll need more info to ID it without a picture. Diameter? What kind of metal? Full inscriptions?

"JUILLET" is French for July. What's the rest of the date?

Bigrig52

It is the size of a silver dollar..around there..

STLNATS

Napolean landed in Egypt on July 1, 1798 and won the Battle of the Pyramids shortly thereafter. After about a year's campaigning he left for France in August 1799.