Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;talerman, post: 3021970, member: 89314&quot;]Here is a 1668 luigino of Lucca.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]751668[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]751669[/ATTACH] </p><p>As you may well know, the story of luigini (sometimes spelled luidgini) is an interesting one. In 1659 Anne-Marie-Louise de Bourbon, King Louis XIII of France&#039;s niece, after a turbulent life, retired to her territories in Dombes. According to de Mey, she reactivated the old mint at Trévoux and started striking coins inspired by the king&#039;s issues. One of these issues, the 1/12 écu or 5 sols, was very well received in the Orient where people gave it a value of 10 sols. Soon the major part of the production at the Trévoux mint was devoted to these very profitable coins for the Levant trade. The French royal 5 sols of Louis XIII and XIV were equally well received. It was not long before many Italian (and also German, Swiss and other) mints started to strike copies for export to the Orient, including the city of Lucca. The reverse of this Lucca luigino bears the arms of Dombes. </p><p><br /></p><p>Luigini were therefore an earlier mini-version of the Maria Theresia Talers as a trade currency. However, overproduction, including an increasing number of lower silver content coins struck by various greedy nobles, led to their plunging in value and the boom ended almost as quickly&nbsp; as it had begun.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in