Why the fascination for Napoleon Bonaparte? For
myself it is a combination of interest in the man and the era. The
French Revolution through the years of the First Empire must surely
rank as one of the most turbulent periods in history. Upheaval characterized
all aspects of life, occurring in philosophy, music, politics, art,
science, military life; you name it. Standing in the middle of this
upheaval, sometimes directing it, sometimes fighting it but always
involved was the little Corsican.
I began collecting over 40 years ago. I intended
to collect swords but as the father of (then) small children it was
pretty obvious that that interest would have to wait. Like
many boys I had collected pennies and nickels and when I saw my first
Napoleonic era coin (the 1807 Brunswick-Luneburg
2/3 taler) I was hooked. The medals came later. Actually, what
I call medals are technically known as medallions today. At the time
however the concept of a medal that was worn was relatively
new. The 'medals' you see in the paintings of the time are really
orders and decorations, generally reserved for the aristocracy and
therefore fairly rare.
I've since branched out to collecting coins, medals,
tokens, jetons and paper money. There really isn't any difference
between a token and a jeton in my opinion, except that a token may
have had implied monetary value and jetons seldom did. Very little
of what you'll see here is extremely rare or expensive; I do occasionally
treat myself but I collect on a relatively modest budget.
If you appreciate art you should treat yourself
to an extended visit. This was an era when even the most mundane coin
or medal was created with style. Of course there were many "slapdash"
efforts, reminding us of our own poor currency here in the USA. But
many pieces were truly Art and the French and British medals
particularly are typically the apex of that creative impulse. It's
difficult to remind yourself at times that all this detail is packed
into something only 40 mm across. That's a little over an inch and
a half for we Americans— ;)
So, I'm an enthusiast. You should be too. Do things for the sheer joy of doing them. Without that joy what's the point? In the end I'm doing something I enjoy.
This web site, which is an extension of what I
did for a living, seemed like a natural. I would love to eventually
participate in a grand, world embracing virtual museum, where collectors
of all sorts can share their treasures with others. As a beginning
of this I'm happy that Fortiter, and Black
Watch allowed me here at napoleonicmedals.com to continue to share their
treasures and knowledge online. Is it limiting to concentrate on a
26 year span of history? You judge.
As you probably have already figured out, nothing is for sale here. This is my personal collection put online first
of all for the fun of it and secondly to share with you.
I design these pages for as large a screen and as many
colors as possible. As such the full experience just isn't going to happen on your phone or tablet although I am making efforts to make that happen. I also personally keep fairly uptodate on the
browsers so if I'm inadvertently messing up you folks on older versions...
sorry. But I would suggest updating, heck they're free.
You will probably enjoy this site more on the latest version of Microsoft
Edge or Google Chrome than anything else.
