Discover www.napoleonicmedals.org

NapoleonicMedals.org is a group of private collectors of Napoleonic medals, coins, paper money, ephemera and books who have chosen to share their treasures. The combined collections are certainly the largest online reference of its kind available at this time.

It’s important to understand that nothing on the site is for sale.

One of my abiding interests has been the life and times of Napoleon Bonaparte. It’s hard to say why exactly, except that if anyone proves that nothing is impossible in life it’s Napoleon. Like all real inspirations he is a maddening mixture of angel and devil, idealistic one moment and ruthlessly terrifying the next. He was a product of his times, a period perhaps unmatched in human history for the complex changes that were happening at every level of society. Much of our law, our philosophical thoughts, our music and our art have its origins in the transition represented by the period 1789-1815. In a time of giants the largest of them all was Napoleon.

So, I collect medals from the period. But since I’m fascinated by all aspects of life I also collect coins, paper money, prints, books, militaria, you name it. I’m driven by my background in history to want to identify and classify. And my profession as a computer systems designer makes me want to use the Internet to share what I have.

Like most people I don’t possess a private fortune. In my case it led to a fortunate decision, if I couldn’t win every auction because of limited means, why not collect collectors? So over time other collectors who are willing to also share have joined me. I’m always looking for more interest but it obviously combines several difficult factors, a collection, a willingness to potentially expose your collection to theft and finally the ability to create and maintain a website.

Vern McCrea, FINS