Objects : 132
-
Object5 Franc piece, Napoleon Emperor, 1806
On 5 December, 1360, king Jean II le Bon signed an ordonnance creating a new gold currency, the Franc, equal in value to one Livre Tournois. At the time, the term “franc” meant ‘autonomous’. The first Franc in the monetary history of France in fact evoked the recent return to liberty of the French king […]
-
ObjectNapoleon’s Hat
“There you sit, infamous hat!” was Prince Metternich’s famous address to the hat in a scene from Rostand’s Aiglon. This line is the opening of a remarkable monologue in which one of the emperor’s most implacable enemies expresses his hate for the hat which has become the embodiment of the emperor himself. For most people, […]