Louis XII came to the throne in April 1498 following the death of Charles VIII, who left no male heir. The "with sun" designation distinguishes this issue from earlier écu types — the sun mark placed above the arms identified the issuing mint under the monetary ordinances that organized French royal coinage into a hierarchy of provincial mints, each assigned a distinct privy mark. The half-écu denomination served trade at a scale where the full écu was too valuable for routine exchange.
Duplessy 648 is among the scarcer half-écu varieties of Louis XII's reign, with surviving examples predominantly from hoard rather than circulation finds.
Louis XII came to the throne in April 1498 following the death of Charles VIII, who left no male heir. The "with sun" designation distinguishes this issue from earlier écu types — the sun mark placed above the arms identified the issuing mint under the monetary ordinances that organized French royal coinage into a hierarchy of provincial mints, each assigned a distinct privy mark. The half-écu denomination served trade at a scale where the full écu was too valuable for routine exchange.
Duplessy 648 is among the scarcer half-écu varieties of Louis XII's reign, with surviving examples predominantly from hoard rather than circulation finds.