40 Franken - Jérôme Bonaparte Tin pattern

Jérôme Bonaparte's Kingdom of Westphalia was crumbling by 1813. Napoleon's catastrophic Russian campaign had gutted the French-allied states, and Westphalia itself collapsed in October of that year when Jérôme fled Kassel ahead of advancing Coalition forces. A tin pattern of this denomination almost certainly reflects a monetary administration in crisis — gold and silver were scarce, and proposals that never reached production were nonetheless struck in base metal for evaluation or presentation.

No 40-Franken piece entered circulation. The pattern survives as evidence of planning that events overtook within months.