I was wondering if you all could help me out here. It is a silver French coin from 1585 and the diameter is between a quarter and half dollar. I was wondering what the denomination is and possibly the value of the coin? Thanks, NOS
Dear Friend, go to www.coinsandhistory.com/French_coins1.html site, take a look at the first coin and let us know, what is the result of your investigation. Take care. Tom
The mint mark appears to be an `I' (at bottom of the shield) but I don't think that there were any 1/4 ecu's minted in Limoges that year (?)...or were there ...Doug? The only other mint it could be is `L' (ie Bayonne) with part of the `L' being just off the flan. I'm a wee bit concerned by the encrustation and other strange bits in the right field next to the shield. Looks either to be heavy corrosion.....or possible casting marks. It's just unusual to see a coin of that type with these `attributes'. I'd want to know where it came from (recently that is). Maybe it has just been recently exumed (?) Although it's probably genuine i'd still check the edge just to make sure there isn't a join. Putting a value on it is difficult but if genuine, I wouldn't expect it to fetch any more than $50 in that condition. Probably less.
I know that the literature says that, but that is very puzzling (and confusing), because as we all know it didn't exactly stop its activities in 1591 as it produced coinage during the reign of Henri IV (from 1591 onwards). However, it didn't produce any coinage for Charles X (Cardinal de Bourbon) during 1589-90.
I have three douzains of Henri III which are identical in size to a US quarter.1/4 Ecu must be the next larger denomination?...what were the relative sizes and denominations during this period?
According to what I have found so far there were no 1/4 ecus minted at Bayonne or Limoges under Henry III - in any year. The only mints that I know of that struck them were Tours - E, Poitiers - G, Troyes - S and Bordeaux - K. However, there was one mint striking coinage illegally in 1585 - Beaucaire. And Livron struck illegal coinage starting in 1578, and no one knows for sure when they stopped or what mint mark they used for sure. Given that, I have to wonder if this is perhaps one of the illegal examples or an outright counterfeit. But that mint mark, an I or an L - just doesn't fit.
The 1/4 ecu was 9.712 grams of .917 silver - the douzain was 2.399 grams of .240 silver. They also had the 1/8 ecu, .917 silver 4.856 grams and the double sol .319 silver 4.706 grams in between those two.
Yep. It doesn't add up. One of these cases where i'd love to see it in the flesh. However, if it is a fake it is still collectable...just more difficult to put a `value' on the collectability.
Indeed, many mints continued to produce the coinage of Henri III after his death in 1589 due to the problems concerning his succession (`La Ligue' / Cardinal Charles X de Bourbon etcetera). Limoges appears to have stopped producing HIII coinage in 1591 in favour of that of HIIII....or so I believe. I have a well used portrait half franc of Henri III clearly dated 1593 from Toulouse mint (M mint mark). It was issued under Antoine, Grand Master of `La Ligue'. If you didn't know the background history you would think that it was either a mint error or a counterfeit. Getting back to the coin in question though, Doug also seems to have had difficulty in finding evidence of Limoges having produced 1/4 ecus in 1585. Similarly for Bayonne which therefore begs the question `what have we here?'.
Just to add to that, in terms of silver coinage there was also the large silver franc (from 1576 onwards) example below: ....the 1/2 franc, the 1/4 franc, the teston (a portrait coin, same size as the 1/4 ecu struck until 1577), and the half teston. The Gros de Six Blancs and the Douzain are considered `billon' coinages. Ian
