Les contremarques au tigre sur les monnaies napoléoniennes

Several Napoleonic coins were overstruck with what present-day numismatists generally call an owl's head. This was thought to be a product of modern fantasy applied to the coins a century or so after the Napoleonic period. Forty-seven specimens have been collected. These show beyond any doubt that this was no late fantasy, but rather a mark of execratio made in 1815 which referred to Napoleon the Tiger (now confined in a cage). There is no connection here with the Chouans of Vendée as it is claimed in some recent catalogues.