Written by the Maison Or & Bijoux Cannes team · updated
Photos: Maison Or & Bijoux.
Specifications
Country
France
Metal
Gold, 900‰ fine
Weight
6.45 g
Fine gold
5.806 g
Diameter
21 mm
Years struck
Year XI (1803) to 1815
Types
7 in all, from the First Consul (Years XI-12) to the laureate head with Empire reverse (1809-1815)
Mints
Paris (A) for the bulk; provinces: H, I, K, L, M, Q, T, W; outside present-day France: Turin (U), Genoa (CL), Rome (crowned R), Utrecht (mast)
Mintage of the Empire type
13,833,717 coins (1809-1814) and 463,682 in the Hundred Days
Engraver
Tiolier (Consulate and Year 12), then Droz
Edge
“DIEU PROTEGE LA FRANCE”
References
KM 651, 674, 695; Gadoury 1020 and 1025; Le Franc F.510-F.516A
Six and a half grams of gold, 21 millimetres, a profile of Bonaparte: the 20 francs of the Consulate and the First Empire opened, in 1803, the long line of gold coins of the franc. Its date may be written the revolutionary way (AN XI, AN 13) or in the usual manner, and its legend changes with the regime. Close to 20 million pieces were struck up to 1815, most of them in Paris between 1809 and 1814.
The Napoleon I 20 francs gold coin: how to recognise it
Obverse
Profile portrait looking left. The earliest type reads “BONAPARTE PREMIER CONSUL”; from Year 12 the legend becomes “NAPOLEON EMPEREUR”. Up to 1807 the head is bare; from 1807 it wears a laurel wreath.
Reverse
In the centre of a wreath, the value “20 FRANCS” and the date; below the wreath, the mint letter. Around it, “REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE” on coins dated up to 1808, “EMPIRE FRANÇAIS” afterwards. Dates stay revolutionary (AN XI to AN 14) until 1805 and become Gregorian in 1806.
Edge
Raised letters “DIEU PROTEGE LA FRANCE”, the same from the first type to the last.
Engraver
Two engravers: Pierre-Joseph Tiolier (First Consul, then Emperor of Year 12), and Jean-Pierre Droz, author of the bare heads and then the laureate heads from Year 13 to the Hundred Days.
Dates and mintages
The Napoleon I 20 francs gold coin: key dates
The table runs in chronological order and stresses three moments: the beginnings of the Consulate, the years of very heavy striking in Paris and the year 1815. Provincial or Italian letters appear when their output falls to a few thousand pieces, or even a few hundred. For a date missing from the table, the letter A remains by far the likeliest.
The Napoleon I 20 francs gold coin: dates and mintages
Year
Mint
Mintage
Remarks
Year XI
A
58,262
Year of creation, lowest Consulate mintage
Year 12
A
988,244
Bonaparte First Consul
Year 12
A
428,143
Imperial legend, reverse still republican
Year 13
A
518,871
Droz's first bare head
Year 13
Q
522
Perpignan
Year 14
A
148,308
Last revolutionary date
1806
A
963,896
Gregorian date, one-year type
1807
A
581,934
Bare head known as the “big head”
1807
A
244,476
Arrival of the laurel
1808
A
1,449,781
Laurel, Republic reverse
1808
K
281
Bordeaux, tiny mintage
1809
A
688,252
“EMPIRE FRANÇAIS” reverse
1810
A
1,936,194
Large or small rooster
1811
A
3,705,489
Peak of production
1812
A
3,072,365
Common date
1813
A
2,798,409
Common date
1814
A
327,603
Year of the abdication
1815
A
435,981
Hundred Days, Paris
1815
L
18,332
Hundred Days, Bayonne
1815
W
9,369
Hundred Days, Lille
Mintages taken from the BDOR tables, type by type; dates and mints checked against the Le Franc catalogue list (F.510 to F.516A); totals per type compared with Wikipedia. From one reference work to another, the numbers can differ by a few hundred or thousand: Coinvarieties gives, for instance, 962,929 for 1806 A and 3,702,681 for 1811 A. A selection only: the type with the Empire reverse alone counts 42 year and mint combinations.
From the Germinal franc to the “napoléon”
On 28 March 1803, the law of 7 Germinal Year XI gave France a currency that would last until the First World War. The silver franc weighed 5 g; gold was struck in 20 and 40 francs pieces, 900 thousandths fine, and one kilogram of alloy yielded 155 coins of 20 francs. Hence the weight of 6.45 g that every 20 francs gold coin would respect up to 1914.
The new coin took over from the royal louis d'or, so much so that people long went on saying “louis”. The word “napoléon” apparently caught on later, rather under the Second Empire, according to Wikipedia. After 1815, the following regimes kept the weight, the diameter and the edge inscription: only the portrait changed.
Seven designs in twelve years
Few coins changed so much in so little time. Tiolier first engraved Bonaparte First Consul, struck in Year XI and Year 12. The proclamation of the Empire, in Year 12, switched the legend to “NAPOLEON EMPEREUR” without touching the reverse, which still proclaimed the Republic.
Droz then took over the portrait. His bare head is dated Year 13 and Year 14, then 1806, first year of the return to the Gregorian calendar. In 1807, a broader head, called the “big head”, served as a transition before the laureate head, introduced the same year.
Last change: under a decree of 22 October 1808, the reverse reads “EMPIRE FRANÇAIS” from 1809. This type, by far the most abundant, was used again in 1815 during the Hundred Days, in Paris, Bayonne and Lille; nothing then sets it apart from the years 1809-1814 except the date.
Paris and the other mints
The letter A of Paris appears on the vast majority of pieces. Provincial mints often worked gold for only a year or two, in small quantities: 281 coins in Bordeaux (K) in 1808, 501 in La Rochelle (H) in 1809, 522 in Perpignan (Q) in Year 13.
Conquests added unexpected letters. Turin (U) struck from Year 14; Rome, with a crowned R, Genoa (CL) and Utrecht, marked by a mast, came on stage between 1812 and 1814. Apart from Utrecht, which reached 90,183 pieces in 1813, these distant strikings are counted in thousands.
Under a loupe, varieties also show up: a large or small rooster in Paris in 1810, a “horn” flaw under the laurel on some 1808 M, a wide or narrow date in Rome, Turin and Lille, “1813” or “18 13” in Utrecht, a 5 re-engraved over a 4 in Paris in 1815. The Year 12 Emperor is also met in medal strike, or with “FRANÇAISE” deprived of its final dot.
Coins people mistake for it
The Napoleon 40 francs gold coin: same portraits, but 12.90 g and 26 mm.
The Napoleon III 20 francs (1853-1870): a “III” follows the Emperor's name. See the page on the Napoleon III 20 francs gold coin.
The Louis XVIII 20 francs, struck in 1814 and 1815: draped bust and royal legend, for dates that overlap the Hundred Days.
The 20 lire struck by the Kingdom of Italy for “NAPOLEONE”: same size, legend in Italian.
The louis d'or: a royal coin from before 1793, which family usage often confuses with the napoléon.
Wear, jewellery and imitations
To assess wear, start from the high points of the portrait: locks above the ear, temple, cheekbone. The laurel says a lot: on a lightly circulated coin, each leaf keeps its vein, whereas prolonged circulation merges them into a smooth band. On the reverse, the sharpness of the wreath leaves and of the lower bow gives a good measure; the legends, for their part, hold out too long to serve as a guide.
Mounted as a pendant or a brooch, a napoléon often keeps the scar of a solder joint on the edge, usually above the head. Do not rub it to make it shine: cleaning leaves irreversible micro-scratches. To go further, see the guide to grades of condition and the one devoted to cleaning coins (both in French).
Counterfeits exist, including some in 900‰ gold. Check the weight (6.45 g), the diameter (21 mm) and the alignment of the edge letters. A pasty relief or a grainy field are suspicious. A rare date, Year XI or an uncommon mint, justifies a close look at the figure and the letter: a retouch can disguise an ordinary coin. The full method is in the guide to counterfeit coins (in French).
In Cannes
The Napoleon I 20 francs gold coin on the French Riviera
The Hundred Days, during which the last 20 francs in the Emperor's name were struck, began on this coast. On 1 March 1815, Napoleon landed at Golfe-Juan with some 1,100 men; after a failed attempt on Antibes, the troop reached Cannes, where it set up its first bivouac, before heading off towards Grasse. A plaque on the church of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Voyage, by the sea, recalls this halt. Coins dated 1815 reading “NAPOLEON EMPEREUR” are therefore contemporary with this episode, even though they were struck far from here, in Paris, Bayonne and Lille. You can bring your coin to the Cannes shop to have its type and mint read, or ask for a free coin valuation.
The Napoleon I 20 francs gold coin: frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a 20 francs of 1814 and one of 1815?
The imperial design is the same. But 1814 saw the abdication, and in 1815 Louis XVIII also struck 20 francs with his own portrait. A coin of 1815 in the name of “NAPOLEON EMPEREUR” belongs to the Hundred Days; only Paris, Bayonne (L) and Lille (W) struck it.
Is the date “AN XI” a striking error?
No, it is Year XI of the revolutionary calendar, that is 1802-1803. It is also the year the coin was created, with only 58,262 pieces in Paris, which makes it the most sought-after date of the First Consul.
Which mint is the most common?
Paris, letter A, by a long way. The other letters, from La Rochelle to Utrecht, often have mintages of a few thousand or even a few hundred coins.
Can I date the coin without reading the year?
Partly. A bare head points to Year 13 to 1807, a laureate head to 1807 to 1815, and the legend “BONAPARTE PREMIER CONSUL” to Year XI or Year 12. The “EMPIRE FRANÇAIS” reverse places the coin in 1809 or later.
