Cattaro — present-day Kotor in Montenegro — passed between French and Austrian control repeatedly during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1813, with French authority collapsing across the Adriatic coast, the city faced an acute shortage of small change. The solution was blunt: existing French 10 Franc gold pieces were countermarked and revalued downward in silver-equivalent terms, pressed into local circulation by municipal authority rather than any imperial mint.
KM#4 is rare by any measure. The political window in which Cattaro could issue its own coinage was measured in months.
Cattaro — present-day Kotor in Montenegro — passed between French and Austrian control repeatedly during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1813, with French authority collapsing across the Adriatic coast, the city faced an acute shortage of small change. The solution was blunt: existing French 10 Franc gold pieces were countermarked and revalued downward in silver-equivalent terms, pressed into local circulation by municipal authority rather than any imperial mint.
KM#4 is rare by any measure. The political window in which Cattaro could issue its own coinage was measured in months.