The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-12-30
FORTUNE HID IN A COIN.
IfYou Have n Five.Franc Piece Cut
II Open; 1t May Contain a Bin OF
wanltk

IL Open; IL Nay contain n biii OF
Wealth.
From the Washington Star.
If you happen to have in your pos
session the particular French coin
known os five-franc piece you may,
unwttingly, he a millionaire. Such at
least is the belief shared by hundreds
upon hundreds of crcdulous Frenchmen
and Frenchwomen, many of whom
spend most of their spare time de-
stroying quantities of five-franc pieces
in the hope Of realizing fortune.
DR.. Marco Leonardo Nardez, the
well-known numismatlst. and one of
the recognized authorities on coin lore,
speaking of this curious condition Of
affairs, said: 1T is quite true that
half of France still believes in the ex-
istence of great wealth hidden in five
franc pieces, although many numis-
inatists hold that the fortune in ques-
tion was long ago discovered and APP
propriated by one of the Rothschild
family.
"The story of the strange five-franc
fortune legend may be briefly told. A
iive-franc piece, to begin with, is
silver coin, and is worth about 81. Ma
poleor /. was very anxious to make the
coin a popular one and with this end
in view he caused it to be circulated
everywhere throughout France that he
had inserted in one of the silver pieces
before it left the mint a bank note or
order for 100000 of these same five
francs--i e. for 81 100000. Whether he
really did this or not | cannot say for
certain, but the weight of evidence
would seem to show that it was done.
In the manuscript memoirs of the Due
de Felte, Napoleor's minister of war,
IL Is expressly stated that the emperor
inclosad a note on the Bank of France,
duly signed by the governors of that
institution. In split Hvc-franc piece;
that the halves were then welded to-
gether; partially rcmintei, and thrown
in q heap of similar coins, which the
emperor mixed with his own hands.
These coins Napoleon took with him in
a bag when he went to Boulogne, and
distributed lavishly en route, even
dropping some of them out of mis- car
riage windows. In this way it was i'm
possible to keep track of the lucky
| coin.
/ THE news of this odd lottery spread
| far and wide, and the live-franc piece
leaped into immediate favor. From
| that day to this mutilation of the coin
has been common in France, SwitZer-
land, Belgium and elsewhere. Every
yeat the Bank of France is requested
to make good scores of pieces split in
| a vain search for the five-million-
| franc bank note.
"'rherc are many stories dealing with
reputed finds of the fortune. Indeed,
when a man becomes suddenly rich in
| France, it is common to hear people
| whisper: ITEMS He must
have found Napoleon's famous coin!
Some assert that the emperor kept the
| coin himself, but this hardly agrees
| with NapOlcon's character. Still it is
| current theory that some of the
money which enabled Napoleon III. to
reach the imperial throne was found in
| the lucky silver piece. which his moth
er Queen Uortense, had wheedlcd out
| of her brotherin-laW. 1t was "lso
common talk that Cen. BoulangCr had
| acquired the famous coin. until the
discovery that his money supplies came
| from the Duchess Dues set that be-
lief at rest
The most likely explanation as to
why thr five-franc piece fails to turn
up is that Baron Ferdinand de Roths-
child. Il French member of the great
Jewish banking house. secured it. This
account states that Baron de Rpths-
child, having investigated the tradition
and found sufficient proof of its truth.
deliberately set to work 10 locate the
81 900. 900 note He Iul"ilv bought in
and collected every ive-rrlnc piece
which reached them in EurOpc, Asia,
Africa, NJ America. In his Office :he
| Baron kept three trusty men hard al
| work bisecting the coins. Some say
that he had invented a plan for weld
ing them together again, so as to defy
detection: others maintain that he
melted down the silver and told it tC
the government en bloc, The work
was colossal; but in the end tn baron s
system is said to have CONQUERED. He
found the note for S5,000,00O francs
having spent nearly million to obtain
it. The order was duly presented al
the Bank of France, and says the
tradition, 1ashad by that institution.
| plausible as the narration may
seem, the great mass of FrenChm"r
refuse to credit ii and go on, year af-
ter year, splitting open their five franc
pieces to look for Napoleon's note. II
rs certainly a tantalizing thought that
somewhere in the world a check fOl
81, 900 900 is knocking about, hidden in
an ordinary silver coin worth barely
81. BY possessing and opening that
coin the man worth Just five francs
may in a moment become a million
airp,"