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Auction: 26776 - America 250th Anniversary Sale Ft. Coins, Medals, Banknotes, Objets de Vertu & Ephemera
Lot: 37

(g) France, Napoleon III (1852-1870), 100 Francs, 1858 A, Paris, bare head right, rev. crowned shield on mantle, edge lettered downwards, 32.20g, 6h (KM 786.1), some general surface wear, otherwise good very fine

The Franco-American relationship during the tenure of Napoleon III was markedly strained. This was largely due to tensions which arose from France's interventions in Mexico.

During the Civil War, France's Napoleon III saw an opportunity in America's internal strife. Sympathetic to the Confederate cause, he hoped that a Southern victory would fracture the United States, secure French access to cotton, and yield a friendly new nation willing to align with French interests. He also had significant financial stakes in Mexico, where in 1864 he installed Austrian Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg as Emperor; a move Washington flatly refused to legitimise.

The Lincoln administration had to tread carefully. Secretary of State William Seward, wary of opening a second front against France while the war raged, kept American support for Mexican resistance fighters deliberately restrained. Only as Confederate defeat became inevitable did Washington grow bolder. By 1865, a combination of firm diplomatic pressure and the conspicuous buildup of U.S. troops along the Mexican border made Napoleon III's position untenable. He pulled French forces out, Maximilian's regime collapsed without its foreign backing, and the deposed emperor was captured and executed. Mexico's elected government reclaimed power shortly after.


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Estimate
$3,800 to $4,000

Starting price
$3500