1/2 Ecu - Louis I

Louis I ruled Monaco under French protection following the 1641 Treaty of Péronne, which ended nearly a century of Spanish suzerainty over the principality. His coinage — struck in his own name with full sovereign pretension — was a direct expression of that newly secured autonomy. Very few pieces from this reign survive in any condition; Monaco's tiny population meant limited domestic circulation, and the coins were never produced in quantities approaching those of neighboring French mints.

Gadoury MC56 is among the scarcer Monégasque issues of the seventeenth century.