Obverse. Photo © NumisCorner.com
  • 50 Centimes 1852, KM# 793, France, Napoleon III
  • 50 Centimes 1852, KM# 793, France, Napoleon III
Description

The French Second Republic was a short-lived republican government of France under President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. It lasted from the 1848 Revolution to the 1851 coup by which the president made himself Emperor Napoleon III and initiated the Second Empire.

Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (born Charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte; 1808–1873) was the only President (1848–52) of the French Second Republic and, as Napoleon III, the Emperor (1852–70) of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I. He was the first President of France to be elected by a direct popular vote. He was blocked by the Constitution and Parliament from running for a second term, so he organized a coup d'état in 1851 and then took the throne as Napoleon III on 2 December 1852, the forty-eighth anniversary of Napoleon I's coronation. He remains the longest-serving French head of state since the French Revolution.

Beginning in 1866, Napoleon had to face the mounting power of Prussia, as Chancellor Otto von Bismarck sought German unification under Prussian leadership. In July 1870, Napoleon entered the Franco-Prussian War without allies and with inferior military forces. The French army was rapidly defeated and Napoleon III was captured at the Battle of Sedan. The French Third Republic was proclaimed in Paris, and Napoleon went into exile in England, where he died in 1873.

Engraver: Jacques-Jean Barre

Obverse

Head of Napoleon III left, surrounded by his name. Engraver's name under the portrait, surrounded by the privy marks of the Engraver General (Jacques-Jean Barre, 1843-1855, dog’s head) and Mint Director (Charles-Louis Dierickx, 1845-1860, hand).

LOUIS-NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
BARRE

Reverse

Denomination within wreath, date and mintmark below.

REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE
50
CENT.
1852
A

Edge

50 Centimes

2nd Republic
KM# 793 Gadoury# 412
Characteristics
Material Silver
Fineness 0.900
Weight 2.5 g
Diameter 18 mm
Thickness -
Shape round
Alignment Coin
Mint
Paris Mint (A)

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