The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1899-05-25
A FIVE FRANC PIECE.
ONE THAT is THE HOPE OF EVERY
cREDULoUS FRENcHMAN.

I int SiOfy oH AaNOAEOn MINUS ODhn
and the Immense Fortune That Is
Popularity Believed 10 Be Conceal
ed Within 1t.
If you happen to have in your posses
sion the particular French coin known
Is a frame piece, you may inviting
ly be Il millionaire
Such. at least, is the belief shared ty
hundreds upon thousands of crednlous
Frenchmen and Frenchwomen, many
of whom spend most of their spare time
destroying quantities of franc pieces
In the hope of realizing fortune.
| DIR. MARCEL Leonardo Nardez, the
well known numismatist and one of the
recognized authorities ON coin lore.
! affairs, said;
1T is quite true that half France
still believes in the existence of great
wealth hidden in n D franc piece, al
though many numismatists hold that
| the fortune in question was long ago
discovered and appropriated by one of
the Rothschild family.
1.-The story CT the strange franc
fortune legend may be briefly told. A
frame piece. TO begin with, is a silver
COIN and is worth about Is "a. Napo
/ leon l was very anxious to make the
coin 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 bank
note or order for 600, 900 of these same
francs-roughly, about ea0O, 900.
/ Whether he really did thiso or not | can
not say for certain, but the weight of
/ evidence would seem TO show that it
was done.
I'm the manuscript memoirs of the
Due de Feltie, Napoleon's minister of
war, it is expressly stated that the em
peror inclosed note on the Bank of
France, duly signed by the governors Of
/ that institution, in split franc piece
/ that the halves were then welded to-
gether, partially reminted and thrown
in heap of similar coins, which the
emperor mixed with his own hands.
/ These coins Napoleon took with him in
bag when he went to Boulogne and
| distributed layishly en- route, even drop
| ping some of them out of his carriage
windows. In this way it was impossible
to keep track of the lucky coin.
1.-THE news of this odd lottery spread
far and wide, and the D franc piece
/ leaped into immediate favor. From
that day to this mutilation of the coin
4 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 10000 900 franc
4 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. He must have found Napo-
leon famous coin.
"Some assert that the emperor kept
/ the coin himself, but this hardly agrees
with Napoleon 5 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.
at was also common talk that Gen
eral Boulanger had acquired the famous
coin until the discovery that his money
supplies came from the Duchess d Uzes
set that belief at rest.
1.-The most likely explanation as to
why the franc piece fails to turn up
is that Baron Ferdinand de Rothsehild,
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, deliberate
/ ly set 10 work to locate the note.
HE quietly bought in and collected
every franc piece he could get, and
his agents were notified to preserve and
forward to Paris every 8 franc piece
which reached them in Europe, Asia,
Africa or America. In his office the
baron kept three trusty men hard at
work biseeting the coins
"Some say that he had invented
plan for welding them together again,
so as to defy detection; others maintain
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 sytem is said to have conquered.
HE found the note for 5000, 900
francs, having spent nearly 900, 900 to
obtain it. The order was duly presented
at the Bank of France and cashed by
that institution.
plausible as this narration may
seem. the great mass of Frenchmen re-
fuse to credit it, and go on, year after
year. splitting open their franc pieces
to look for Napoleon note. 1t is GER
tainly tantalizing thought that some
where in the world a check for e200,
600 is knocking about hidden in an or
binary silver coin worth less than 8 shil-
Gngs. Pearson Weekly.