La Belle Epoque: 10 Historical Coins from the Concert of Europe, 1870-1914

The Belle époque—French for ”The Beautiful Era“—is the period of European history between the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 and the start of the Great War 44 years later. During this so-called Concert of Europe, there was, with rare exception, peace on the Continent. It was a period of optimism, prosperity, colonial expansion, and technological, scientific, and cultural innovations, and a high point for the arts that saw the creation of numerous masterpieces of literature, music, theatre, and visual art. The unification of both Germany and Italy were completed. In France, the Third Republic held sway. Great Britain was at the apogee of its power. The economies of all the major nations were so intertwined that there was widespread belief that a Pax Europa might endure for decades if not centuries. And then, just like that, for byzantine reasons historians still argue about, the world was at war, and the Belle époque was no more. This collection features 10 coins from the Belle époque period: 1/ French Third Republic 5 centimes 2/ Germany 5 pfennig 3/ Belgium 2 cents 4/ Bulgaria 50 stotinki 5/ Italy 10 centimi 6/ Great Britain half penny 7/ Austria 10 heller 8/ Latvia 2 lati 9/ Russia kopek 10/ Greece 10 lepta