Siege of Luxembourg 1795

Moneta — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 13:47:54 -0700

by: Moneta

Description: After a siege of over seven months the forces of Revolutionary France finally convinced the the people of Luxembourg to demand capitulation by the Hapsburg forces defending the fortress. The fortress was famous as the most secure in northern Europe, only Gibraltar was considered to have stronger defenses. The punishment the revolutionary forces of France were able to inflict caused the inhabitants to give up. The fortresses of Luxembourg and Mainz were the last hold-out areas west of the Rhine River and the "Committee of Public Safety" in Paris wanted a final defeat. With the fall of Luxembourg French revolutionary armies were able to march north and establish the Batavian Republic, thus removing the Netherlands from British and Prussian influence. F II refers to Frans II. These coins are very scarce with the other denomination (72 asses in silver), being very rare. The date on this 1 Sol piece is 1795 although it can appear to be 1796 in some light situations. The coin, like many siege pieces, is cast. KM lists it as copper but this example appears to be brass. 1 SOL, 1795, KM 19; 30 - 31 mm at 16.05 g. VF for type. Lawrence C. Korchnak Ph.D. wrote the recent volume entitled "Siege Coins of the World 1453 - 1902". He said the following about siege coins: "There is a benchmark that covers the vast majority of issues. Siege money was used to pay the besieging or defending troops during a siege. A siege can take the form of encircling a city, town or fortress as well as a blockade by sea…or the combination of the two. Some sieges produced coins and/or currency. Others had no issues at all because there was no shortage of existing coins to cover paying the garrison. Confusion can arise when there was no need to create alternative means of to pay the troops. Often, the city or town issued necessity (as opposed to siege) money during a siege or period of warfare. This money was “generic” in a sense since it was placed in circulation for normal use. For example, Gerona and Majorca in the early 1800’s. Even so, coins like the cities of refuge have been traditionally considered siege coins and included on the book. While others were omitted like the Silesian klippes that were issued to pay tribute. Somewhat subjective but I believe necessary in the long run."

Moneta's Temple and Gallery

Siege of Luxembourg 1795