Coins of the French Revolution

GoldenEyeNumismatics

Hello everyone.

I'm usually a US coin guy, but am starting to branch out a little.

For my AP euro history class one of our long-term projects for the later portion of the year is to write a +/- 5000 word paper on a European history topic of our choice. The topic I chose for myself is "To what extent were the values set forth by the French Revolution expressed in the French coinage of that era?"

Can anyone suggest some resources (preferably books) that could yield accurate information on this topic?

Thanks.

Dawg144

You've picked a very interesting and exciting topic! I'm looking for some sources (yeah, I don't have anything better to do over spring break ), but almost everything I've found so far is in French. Here's the only freely accessible book I found in English:

Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution; Lynn Avery Hunt

From my quick perusal of the text through Google Books, I found a brief discussion on the image of Hercules that might be of use. I think there's a good chance that the bibliography of this one has something valuable. If you have an affiliation with JSTOR, there are a couple of scholarly articles that look promising, like "The Liberty Cap as a Revolutionary Symbol in America and France".

One question I've always had about French Revolutionary coinage, and one that you might find some information on, is: why did a society that was so bent on rationalizing/metricizing everything, even to the point of changing calendars and clocks, issue a coin in the denomination of 24 livres?

Good luck with your research!

harasha

Not quite what you want, but here is an article which could have some relevance - the history of Marianne as the symbol of the Republic:

Marchons!

lordmarcovan

Well, for one thing, coins of that period were struck with the Revolutionary date. For example, "L'an 3", or "Year Three (of the Revolution)", instead of Christian calendar dates.

Need a Revolutionary-dated "L'an-something-or-other" coin? I just gave one away (a one-decime piece in low grade), but I might have another. I know I have a decent Louis XVI piece around here somewhere that might've been struck with the Revolutionary date on it. (For a while, they kept the head of the old king on the coins in conjunction with the new-style Revolutionary calendar dates, until they removed that particular head from its body as well as from the coins).

The piece I have here might have the old-style 1790-something date on it, but I'll have to check. If it's Revolutionary, or I find another Revolutionary-dated coin, I will let you know. The ones I am likely to have are not terribly expensive coins.

The change of calendars is one of the bigger effects of Revolutionary ideals as seen on the coinage, I'd say.

I'm sure somebody else here has some Revolutionary-era coins.

The practice continued for a time, but later on, before Napoleon had fallen from power, they abandoned it, and went back to the old-style Christian dating system.