1/2 Ecu - Louis I

Louis I ruled Monaco under French protection following the Treaty of Péronne in 1641, which ended decades of Spanish suzerainty over the principality. His coinage of the 1660s was struck in small quantities befitting a territory of Monaco's size, and survivors in any grade are genuinely scarce — the Gadoury reference designates this as one of the rarer emissions of his reign. The "a" variety distinction in MC56a relates to subtle die differences documented across the short two-year production window.