Marengo 20 Lire or Napoléon 20 Fr: which is the better buy today?
Marengo 20 Lire and Napoléon 20 Fr hold the same gold — 5.81 g of fine metal each — and differ in everything else: Marengo 20 Lire is struck in 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt by Regno d’Italia, Napoléon 20 Fr in 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt by Monnaie de Paris. With the metal identical, the only thing left to compare is what each dealer charges above it.
| coin | Marengo 20 Lire | Napoléon 20 Fr |
|---|---|---|
| fine gold | 5.81 g | 5.81 g |
| gross weight | 6.45 g | 6.45 g |
| purity | 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt | 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt |
| diameter | 21 mm | 21 mm |
| thickness | 1.30 mm | 1.30 mm |
| face value | 20 lire | 20 francs |
| struck | Italy · 1861–1897 | France · 1803–1914 |
The prices come from the feed, and the feed has not answered yet.
Marengo 20 Lire — The Italian 20 lire of the Latin Monetary Union — the same 5.81 g of gold as a Napoléon or a Vreneli, which is why the three trade together.
Napoléon 20 Fr — The French 20 francs, from Bonaparte to the Great War: the most widely held of the small European gold coins.
Both are struck in 900 ‰ · 21.6 kt: the same alloy, the same feel in the hand, and any difference on the scale is a difference in gold.
Both were money first: Marengo 20 Lire from 1861 to 1897, Napoléon 20 Fr from 1803 to 1914. They trade today on the gold inside them and on how readily each is recognised over a counter.
So the comparison is the premium. Whichever of the two a dealer asks less for above its metal is the cheaper gold that day — and that changes shop by shop and day by day, which is what the numbers above are for.