Just won this from Roma XXIV AV Florin d'or ND François de Bourbon 1605-14 Prince of Château-Renault This principality existed for 1604-29 when it was given to Louis XIII of France Only 4 coin types were struck/ all rare I posted the Roma graded EF coin with a Heritage MS-61/ the EF is nicer.
Absolutely wonderful, splendid coins. I wasn't aware of their existence, but that's no so surprising really. I collect French coins but in medieval and Renaissance France, almost every bishop, count or other noble seems to have minted his own coinage at one time or another - very different from England where the privilege of minting coin was a jealously guarded Royal prerogative. Because of the huge numbers of feudal coins, I stick to Royal silver coins, and there are plenty of those, as my budget rarely stretches to gold. One interesting thing about these florin is that more than usual prominence is given to Francois' wife, Louise Margaret of Lorraine: LVD. MARGAR. LOTHAR. (Lotharingia, the Latin name of Lorraine). She was his second wife, he married her in1605 when she was 17 years old. This makes me wonder if these coins were produced for this special event and were not intended for general circulation. I remember reading an article (by Crusafont? or perhaps Glenn Murray? ) on the 20 gold excelentes of Isabel and Fernando. These were high prestige coins and were given as tokens of thanks and/or affection to people who had rendered them special services. I assume that the mintage figures of these gold florin would be very low, so perhaps Francois de Bourbon followed a tradition, minted coins for a special occasion and distributed them to the guests On looking on the Net I also see that he minted silver deniers - perhaps for everyday use or giving out as largesse, to less important people - who knows?
I think reason for England (just Royal coinage) is that entire Country was ruled by the King/ Queen. Scotland was still a sovereign nation/ France/ Spain/ Germany there where hundreds of City States/ Duchies/ Countships/ Archbishoprics/ Principalities/ Kingdoms.... Spain/ Aragon also struck AV 50 Execelentes/ 100 Ducatos/ 50 Enriques/ 20 Doblas/ magnificent gold coins. John
