Westphalia was already collapsing around Jérôme when this pattern was struck. Napoleon's catastrophic Russian campaign had gutted the kingdom's military and treasury, and by late 1813 Jérôme would flee Kassel entirely as allied forces closed in. That a 10 Franc pattern in bronze-plated tin was being tested at all in this environment suggests either bureaucratic inertia or a last-ditch attempt to establish a workable low-denomination coinage for a realm that had weeks left to exist.
The tin core beneath the bronze plating is consistent with wartime material substitution practiced across Napoleonic dependencies after 1812.
Westphalia was already collapsing around Jérôme when this pattern was struck. Napoleon's catastrophic Russian campaign had gutted the kingdom's military and treasury, and by late 1813 Jérôme would flee Kassel entirely as allied forces closed in. That a 10 Franc pattern in bronze-plated tin was being tested at all in this environment suggests either bureaucratic inertia or a last-ditch attempt to establish a workable low-denomination coinage for a realm that had weeks left to exist.
The tin core beneath the bronze plating is consistent with wartime material substitution practiced across Napoleonic dependencies after 1812.