The French 100 Francs Napoleon III Laurel gold coin holds rank among the most elusive and sought after of all historical European coins, with a total mintage of just 98,343 pieces from 1861-1870.  As our clients know, larger historic coins (at or near one troy ounce) are comparatively scarce to begin with, with only a handful of options from the historical era – small coinage carried greater utility in everyday commerce and was therefore produced in far greater numbers.  But the French 100 Francs Napoleon III Laurel are even scarce within the sub category of already scarce ‘large’ historic coins.  With less than 100,000 total coins struck, they are scarcer than their 100 Franc counterparts (the “Bare Head” Napoleon, ~350,000 coins minted, and Angel, ~270,000 coins minted), far scarcer than the Mexico 50 Pesos (~5 million coins minted) and are utterly dwarfed by the total number of US $20 gold pieces struck from 1850-1932.

Historical Note:  Napoleon III was the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte and emperor of France from 1852 to 1870.  He was the elected president of the The Second Republic of France in 1848, a republic that ultimately lasted just three years. When it became evident the French Parliament would block his re-election bid in 1852, he promptly organized a coup in December 1851, seized power, re-wrote the constitution and declared himself emperor of France.  Just like that, the Second Republic of France had ended.  In an interesting historical side note, Emperor Napoleon III claimed the throne of the Second Empire of France on December 2nd 1852, 48 years to the day after his Uncle, Napoleon I was crowned.

Napoleon III strove to restore the glory of France to the lofty stature attained under his famous uncle, but his rule was undermined by a succession of political blunders including rifts with the Vatican over papal land and French industry over his free trade policy with England. In the Franco Prussian War of 1870, in part due to the disunity at home, he met defeat at the hands of the Prussians near Sedan. Within days, the weakened Napoleon III was unseated by a new revolution and he left France for England where he died in 1873, failing to restore the glory of Napoleonic France.