18th & 19th Century European Coins: Historically, British subjects have paid for items with everything from tiny farthings to larger guineas and crowns. German coinage is no less rich. Collected coins include those minted by the German states prior to and immediately following the unification of the states into an empire in 1871. France’s modern-day decimal monetary system dates 1795, shortly after the French Revolution. Some gold francs of the early 1800s featured the bust of Napoleon.