Ira and Larry Goldberg Auctioneers
Auction 122 15-16 Jun 2021
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France. 5 Francs, 1854-A (Paris). Fr-578; KM-783. Plain edge. Weight 0.0471 ounce. Napoleon III. Bare head right. PCGS graded MS-61. In special PCGS Ship of Gold holder which contains One Pinch of Gold Dust recovered from the S.S. Central America treasure.
Special PCGS number 674165.61/35474698. Estimated Value $500 - UP
Much of 1854 in France was consumed by the concerns of the Crimean War 1853-1856). This conflict had already broken out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire on 16 October 1853, but was stoked by a dispute between France and Russia over the right to serve as protector of the Christian population in the Ottoman Empire. On 28 March 1854, France entered the war alongside Great Britain as an Ottoman ally. Fearing the use of the Russian Siberian flotilla against French and British trading interests in the Pacific, French and British ships attacked to prevent the Russian Empire from dispatching reinforcement from its Siberian fleet, French and British ships made a failed attack on Petropavlovsk in September 1854. More successful was the battle of the Alma in the Crimea on 20 September, which resulted in an Anglo-French victory, but at the high cost of 1,000 French soldiers killed. This was followed in October by the beginning of the siege of Russian forces in Sevastopol and the notorious battle of Balaclava (25 October) that brought the combined French, British, and Ottoman forces to a standstill after the Light Brigade was annihilated in an erroneous charge against Russian guns. However, the doggedly successful defense of Inkerman by the allies on 5 November convinced the Russians that they could not win the war through field battles.
At the same time that French forces were engaged in what was destined to be considered one of the worst managed European conflicts of the nineteenth century, in Paris, the daguerreotype photographer André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri was patenting his new process for printing paper carte de visite photographs. His system, patented on 27 November 1824, allowed for the printing of 8 photogaphs on the same sheet. Likewise, in Paris in 1854, Louis Vuitton set up shop as a maker of trunks. His company later developed into a famous fashion house and designer of luxury goods.
Special PCGS number 674165.61/35474698. Estimated Value $500 - UP
Much of 1854 in France was consumed by the concerns of the Crimean War 1853-1856). This conflict had already broken out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire on 16 October 1853, but was stoked by a dispute between France and Russia over the right to serve as protector of the Christian population in the Ottoman Empire. On 28 March 1854, France entered the war alongside Great Britain as an Ottoman ally. Fearing the use of the Russian Siberian flotilla against French and British trading interests in the Pacific, French and British ships attacked to prevent the Russian Empire from dispatching reinforcement from its Siberian fleet, French and British ships made a failed attack on Petropavlovsk in September 1854. More successful was the battle of the Alma in the Crimea on 20 September, which resulted in an Anglo-French victory, but at the high cost of 1,000 French soldiers killed. This was followed in October by the beginning of the siege of Russian forces in Sevastopol and the notorious battle of Balaclava (25 October) that brought the combined French, British, and Ottoman forces to a standstill after the Light Brigade was annihilated in an erroneous charge against Russian guns. However, the doggedly successful defense of Inkerman by the allies on 5 November convinced the Russians that they could not win the war through field battles.
At the same time that French forces were engaged in what was destined to be considered one of the worst managed European conflicts of the nineteenth century, in Paris, the daguerreotype photographer André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri was patenting his new process for printing paper carte de visite photographs. His system, patented on 27 November 1824, allowed for the printing of 8 photogaphs on the same sheet. Likewise, in Paris in 1854, Louis Vuitton set up shop as a maker of trunks. His company later developed into a famous fashion house and designer of luxury goods.