Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1898-01-28
NAPOLEONIC LEGEND.
FRENCHMEN BELIEVE HE HID A
FORTUNE IN A COIN.

Unpopular Currency CircuIate-Dreams
of Acquiring sudden Wealth.
If you happen to have in your pos
session the particular French coin
known as 5-franc piece you may, I'M
| Willingly be a millionaire.
! Such at least is the belief shared by
hundreds upon hundreds of credulous
Frenchmen and Frenchwomen, many
of whom spend most Of their spare time
destroying quantities of 5-franc pieces
in the hope of realizing a fortune.
/ DR.. Marco Leonardo Nardez, the
well-knOwn numismatist, and one of
the recognized authorities on coin lore,
speaking of this curious condition Of
affairs, said 1T is quite true that half
France still believes in the eXistnce of
great wealth hidden in a 5-franc piece,
although many numismatics hold that
the fortune in question was long ago
| discovered and appropriated by one Of
| the Rothschilds family.
THE story of the strange 5-franc for
tune legend may be briefly told. A s.
franc piece. to begin with, is a silver
coin, and is worth about 81. Napo-
leon /. 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. 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 Feltie, Napoleon minister
of war, it is expressly stated that the
emperor inclosed a note on the Bank
of France, duly signed by the COVER
nors of that institution, in a split s.
franc piece that the halves were then
welded together, partially reminted,
and thrown in a 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 Bou-
logne, and distributed lavishly en-
route-even dropping some of them out
of his carriage windows. In this way
it was impossible to keep track of the
lucky coin.
The news Of this odd lottery spread
far and wide, and the 5-franc piece
leaped into immediate favor. From
that day to this mutiation of the
coin has been common in France,
Switzerland and Belgium and else
where Every year the Bank of
France is requested to make good
scores of pieces split in vain search
for the 00,000-iranc bank note.
There 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 Napoeons famous COIN
Some assert that the emperor kept the
coin himself but this hardly agrees
with Napoleon's character. Still it
is a 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
mother, Queen Hortense, had wheedled
out of her brother-in-law. 1t was also
common talk that Cen. Boulanger had
acquired the famous coin, until the
discovery that his money supplies came
from the Duchesse dukes set that be-
lief at rest.
The most likely explanation as tC
why the five-franc piece fails to turn
up is that Baron Ferdinand de Roth.
schild, a French member of the great
Jewish banking house, secured it. This
account states that Baron de Roth
schild having investigated the tradition
and found sufficient proof of it's truth
deliberately set TO work to locate the
81 ,000, 600 note. He quietly bought
in and collected every five-franc piece
he could get and his agents were mott
fed to preserve and forward to Pari!
every five-franc piece which reached
them in Europe, asia, Africa or Amer
lea. In his office the baron kept three
trusty men hard al work bisecting thu
coins. Some say tAat he had invented
plan for welding them together again
so as to defwy detection; others main
tain that he melted down the silver anC
sold it to the government en- bloc. Tht
work was colossal; but, in the end, thu
baron's system is said to have con
Quered lie found the note for 5000,
600 francs, having spent nearly a mill
ion to obtain it. The order was duly
presented at the Bank of France. and
says the tradition, cashed by that in
stituton.
Plausible as the narration may seen
the great mass of Frenchmen refuse t
credit it, and 20 on, year after year
\ splitting open their five-franc pieces t
look for Napoleon's note 1t is Ger
tainly tanaIzing thought that some
where i'm the world check for 81 900.
D 0o0 is knocking about hidden in al
ordinary silver coin. worth barely 81
by possessing and opening that coli
> the man worth just five francs may il