Everyone's been posting all those beautiful French Louies,so I decided to bring it down a notch.I'm not sure exactly what tortures this coin endured,tarring & feathering,steel wool...whatever, but it kept it affordable. I just realized the design on the rev. is the same as the French angel coin,holy Walking Liberty!
There is nothing wrong with cleaned or banged up coins.. as long as you like them and paid a reasonable price I sure love the Louis XVI coin!
You guys are so nice...I feel better now. Doug,that brings up another question.Since Louis was a target of the revolution,why would his coins feature this design on the back in 1792. Was he trying to appease the population or what?
Don't think he had much of a choice. At that time France already was a constitutional monarchy. Louis was de iure still king, but he had not been an absolute ruler any more since the 1789 declaration of human rights and the 1791 constitution ... Christian
That condition is about as good as you will find these particular denomination coins in (ditto its smaller brother the 15 sols). They are usually pretty much sought after too. The real daddy of course is the ecu of six livres. I've got a couple but i'll have to dig them out and scan them. They aren't in my picture library for some reason. The one of the type that has eluded me so far is the 1/2 ecu. Boy, they are difficult! The one with my name on it is still in hiding. The story of the lucky `Angel' has been told here on this forum before methinks. How the designer was sentenced to be guillotined for his royalist sympathies. Legend has it that he had a [Louis D'Or] coin bearing the angel design sewn into his jacket and used it to bribe his escape from the Bastille. Hence the coin being known as a `lucky angel' and its use. All I can say with regards to it being lucky or otherwise is that it didn't bring much luck of the `good' variety for Louis XVI. (Edit in []'s from 20 fr to Louis D'or)
Here's a 1792 A (Paris Mint) Ecu de six livres with Louis XVI bust/ `Angel' rev. These coins were issued for both 1792 and 1793 by various mints in France. After Louis' beheading in January 1793 the powers that be decided to keep the `Genie' design and go for a bland straightforward `tell it like it is' reverse. Here's one of that type After that design we see the first French use of the Dupre design of Hercules and the two Muses as issued under the `Directoire'. This one is from Paris mint during the second year of issue (year 5 which is actually 1796-7). If you look closely at the reverse, you will see that this particular coin has been turned into a love token.
"Since Louis was a target of the revolution,why would his coins feature this design on the back in 1792. Was he trying to appease the population or what?" Louis was really out of the decision making process at this point. As Christian stated it was a constitutional monarchy by then. However up until 1792 Louis was not exactly unpopular. Marie Antoinette was the target of alot of the resentment. Louis though was seen as a decent constitutional monarch. French politics at this time had split into three parties, two major ones (the Girondins and the Jacobins) and another less influential party in exile (the Royalists). The Girondins (the liberal party) were in control up until 1791/2 and Louis was safe whilst ever they were in power. They went in for a more wide ranging but moderate revolution. That is a constituational monarchy and they hope they could spread their new revolutionary ideals beyond France to Germany, Austria, Spain and Russia and abolish their somewhat feudalistic systems, especially Russia. The Jacobins however, were more radical and wanted to purge Franch of the final trappings of the old regime (i.e the King and Queen). They were less intrested with spreading the revolution beyond France, they were more interested in taking France to the further limits of their ideals. (Ironically ending up in the Terror). 1791/2 saw a crucial phase in French politics, the Girondin position weakened and the Jacobins gained further ground and eventually too over. The king had been trying to summon aid from the King of Spain to invade. The Royalist exiles were equally plotting coups (all ill thought out), and others were trying their hardest to persuade foreign governments to intervene of Louis' behalf. Louis XVI figured that no one was ever gonna resuce him this he and his family tried to flee to Varenne, they were captured and their letters to Charles of Spain were found. The Jacobins had long suspected the Royal family of being untrustworthy, and for doctrinal reasons they had wanted to eliminate them from the equation (but had feared a backlash if they had just overthrown them), now they had all the evidence they needed to prove to the people that the king was an emeny of France, he was forced to abdicate in 1792, put on trial and guillotined in January 1793. And then France entered a very dark period for the next year and a half where the Jacobins became suspicious of everyone, and the Terror kicked off and the guillotinings became a regular occurence. So suspicious they became that even the Jacobin leader Robespierre was beheaded.
Don't forget that King Louis XVI coins were also struck in 1793 as well.I have got a few of the bell metal 12 Deniers,of which at least one is dated 1793. Aidan.
