1/2 écu - Honoré II

Honoré II struck coinage in his own name only after formally wresting the title of Prince from the Grimaldi lordship system — a status he secured through the 1612 Spanish protectorate and consolidated over subsequent decades. The 1643 date places this piece late in his reign, by which point Monaco had already pivoted its allegiance from Spain to France under the Treaty of Péronne, signed just two years prior in 1641. That political reversal was not symbolic: it repositioned a tiny sovereign enclave between two competing powers and gave Honoré the diplomatic cover to mint with genuine princely authority.

Gadoury MC24 is among the more elusive of the Honoré II silver issues, with surviving examples in any grade genuinely scarce.