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Among the various Napoleonic curiosities none possess more historic and artistic merit than the" Napoleon medals," issued by the French government from 1796 to 1833. These medals illustrate Napoleon's life from the time of his first great prominence in 1796; they follow him like faithful shadows through his consulship, his emperorship, to his defeat, abdication, and even to his exile at St. Helena. They disappear with a final flicker at the death of his son, the Duc de Reichstadt in 1832. They come also from various other sources, although the best of them were issued from the Paris Medal mint, under the charge of M. Denon, where the artistic skill of such men as Andrieu, Brenet, Droz, Galle, Gatteaux, Jaley, and Jeuffroy, was constantly employed to record the various successes of the great general. Others came from the Milan mint, then under the efficient control of M. Cattaneo, while many were struck by various private societies, cities, and corporations.
The first medal on which Napoleon figures was struck in the year 1796, when
