Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1899-08-04
A FIVE FRANC PIECE
ONE THAT is THE HOPE OF Ev-
ERY FRENCHMAN.
The Story Of NapoIeon's Famous Coin and
the Immense Fortune That Is Popularity
Believed to Be Concealed Within II.

the Immense TOrtune indt Is FOpuidIty
Believed to Be Concealed Within 1t.
Pearson's Weekly.
If you happen to have in your pos
session the particular French coin
known as 5-franc piece, you may un-
Willingly be a millionaire.
Such, at least, is the belief shared
by hundreds of thousands 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 for
tune.
DIR. Marco Leonardo Nardez, the
we'll known numismatist and one of
the recognized authorities on coin
lore, speaking of this curious condi-
ton of affairs, said:
at is quite true that half France
still believes in the existence of great
wealth hidden in 5-franc piece, al
although many numismatists hold
that the fortune in question was long
ago discovered and appropriated by
one of the Rothschild family.
"The story OF the strange 5-franc
fortune legend may be briefly told. A
5-franc piece, to begin with, is sill
yer coin, and is worth about As. I'd.
Napoleon was very anxious to make
the coin popular one, and with this
end in view he caused it to be circu-
lated everywhere throughout France
that he had inserted in one of the sill
yer pieces before it left the mint a
bank note or order for 100000 of
these same 5-francs-roughly, about
100000. Whether he really did this
or not l cannot say for certain, but
the weight of evidence would seem to
show that it was done.
ain the manuscript memoirs OF the
Due de Feltie, Napoleon's minister of
war, it is expressly stated that the EN-
peror inclosej note on the Bank of
France, duly signed by the governors
OF that institution, in split t-sranc
piece; that the halves were then weld
ed together, partially reminted and
thrown in 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 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 mutilation of the coin
has been common in France, Switzer.
land, Belgium and elsewhere. Every
year the Bank of France is requested
to make good scores of pieces split in
a vain search for the 100000 franc
bank note.
"There are many stories dealing
with reputed finds of the fortune. In.
deed when a man becomes suddenly
rich in France it is common to hear
people whisper, He must have found
Napoleon's famous coin.'
"Some assert that the Emperor
kept the coin himself, but this hardly
agrees with Napoleon's character.
Still it is a current belief that eome
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.
at was also common talk that Gen
eral Boulanger had acquired the ia
nous coin until the discovery that his
money supplies came from the Ouch
ess d'Uzes set that belief at rest.
"The most likely explanation as to
why the franc piece fails to turn up
is that Baron Ferdinand de Roth.
schild, French member of the great
Jewish banking house, secured it.
This account states that Baron de
Rothschild, having investigated the
tradition and found sufficient proof of
its truth, deliberately set to work to
locate the note.
"He quietly bought in and collected
every 5-franc piece he could get, and
his agents were notified to preserve
and forward to Paris every 5-frank
piece which reached them in Europe,
Asia, Africa or America. In his office
the baron kept three trusty men hard
at work bisecting the coins.
"Some say that he had invented a
plan for welding them together again,
SO as to defy detection; others main
tain that he melted down the silver
and sold it to the government en- bloc.
The work was colossal, but in the end
the baron's system is said to have con-
quered.
"He found the note for 100000
francs, having spent nearly 100000
to obtain it. The order was duly pre-
sented at the Bank of France and
cashed by that institution,
"Plausihle as this narration may
seem, the great mass of Frenchmen re.