1810 AD., German States, French occupation, Kingdom of Westphalia, Jerome Bonaparte, Cassel mint, 10 Centimes, KM 96.

German States, French occupation, Kingdom of Westphalia, Jerome Bonaparte (Hieronymus) Napoleon (1807-1813), Cassel (Kassel) mint, engraver: Nicolas-Pierre Tiolier, 1810 AD.,
10 Centimes (ø 19 mm / 2,10 g), 0.200 silver, 2,00 g. theor. mint weight, mintage ? , axis medal alignment ↑↑ (0°), plain edge,
Obv.: HN , crowned HN -monogram (for "Hieronymus Napoleon") with ribbons at center, incuse wreath of two laurel branches with leaves on a raised rim.
Rev.: HIERON. NAPOLEON KOEN. / 1810 // 10 / CENT. / (eagle´s head r.) - C / Tiolier , value, mint mark and engraver´s name (in script) within a broad, raised rim containing the incuse circular legend.
KM 96 (formerly known as: C 25) ; AKS 38 ; Jaeger 33 .

Year / Mint Mark / Mintage
1808 / C / ?
1809 C
1810 C
1812 C

The Kingdom of Westphalia was a new country of 2,6 million Germans that existed from 1807–1813. It included 1,100 square miles (2,800 km2) of territory in Hesse and other parts of present-day Germany. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the First French Empire and was ruled by Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte. It was named after Westphalia, but it is a misnomer since the kingdom had little territory in common with that area.
Napoleon imposed the first written modern constitution in Germany, a French-style central administration, and agricultural reform. The Kingdom liberated the serfs and gave everyone equal rights and the right to a jury trial. In 1808 the Kingdom passed Germany's first laws granting Jews equal rights, thereby providing a model for reform in the other German states. Westphalia seemed to be progressive in immediately enacting and enforcing the new reforms.
The country was relatively poor but Napoleon demanded heavy taxes and payments, and conscripted soldiers. Few of the men who marched into Russia with Napoleon in 1812 ever returned. The Kingdom was bankrupt by 1812. When Napoleon was retreating in the face of Allied advances in 1813, the Kingdom was overrun by the Allies and (in 1815) turned over most of it to Prussian rule. Most of the reforms, however, remained in place.


Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte (born Girolamo Buonaparte; 15 November 1784 – 24 June 1860) was the youngest brother of Napoleon I and reigned as Jerome I (formally Hieronymus Napoleon in German), King of Westphalia, between 1807 and 1813. From 1816 onward, he bore the title of Prince of Montfort. After 1848, when his nephew, Louis Napoleon, became President of the French Second Republic, he served in several official roles, including Marshal of France from 1850 onward, and President of the Senate in 1852.
Napoleon made his brother King of Westphalia, the short-lived realm (1807–13), created, by Napoleon, from the several states and principalities in northwestern Germany (in the former thousand-year old Holy Roman Empire). It was later reorganized by Napoleon into the Confederation of the Rhine and then after his defeat, the Allies were to reorganise the German states into a German Confederation with Austrian leadership, largely overriding prior claim of lesser states.
The Napoleonic realm of Westphalia had its capital in Kassel (then: Cassel). Jérôme was married, as arranged by Napoleon, to HRH Princess Catharina of Württemberg, the daughter of Frederick I, King of Württemberg. However, Jérôme's expensive habits earned him the contempt of Napoleon. His court incurred expenses comparable to Napoleon's court (which oversaw a vastly larger and more important realm), and Napoleon refused to support Jérôme financially. In 1813, when his Kingdom was being threatened from the east by the advancing allied Prussian and Russian armies. He led a small force to challenge their invasion. Following a clash with an enemy detachment, he made camp with his army, hoping for reinforcements from the French army in the west. However, before reinforcements arrived the main allied force captured the capital Kassel. The Kingdom of Westphalia was declared dissolved and Jérôme's kingship ended. He then fled to join his wife, the former queen, in France.

More on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jérôme_Bonaparte