1/2 Écu d'argent de Béarn dit 'aux branches d'oliviers' - Louis XV

Béarn, the tiny Pyrenean sovereignty absorbed into the French crown in 1620, retained its own coinage privilege well into the eighteenth century — a relic of the personal union that had brought Henri IV to the French throne. Louis XV's administration began systematically suppressing these regional minting rights after the monetary reform edict of 1726, which standardized coinage across France and fixed the louis d'or at twenty-four livres. Pau, the sole mint serving Béarn, struck this series under that reformed standard but retained its distinctive cow mintmark throughout.

The olive branch attribution distinguishing this type from related écu issues points to a specific die arrangement used at Pau rather than any of the great metropolitan mints.