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1/2 Gold Louis with 8 Ls and insignia - Louis XIV
| Issuer | Monnaie de Paris |
|---|---|
| Year | 1700-1704 |
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| Shape | Round |
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| Obverse description | Laureate and draped bust of Louis XIV facing right, engraved in the mature Baroque style by Joseph Roëttiers, with long flowing curls falling over the shoulder. The circumferential legend in Latin reads LVD. XIIII. D. G. FR. ET. NAV. REX, with the date 1700 placed in the lower exergue beneath the portrait. The effigy conveys the regal gravitas characteristic of late-reign portraiture of the Sun King, with bold relief and fine detail in the laurel wreath and drapery folds. |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | LVD. XIIII. D. G. FR. ET. NAV. REX 1700 |
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| Additional information |
The demi-louis d'or of this type was introduced under the monetary reform of 1690, which restructured French gold coinage following decades of repeated devaluations and revaluations that had eroded confidence in the livre tournois. By 1700, Louis XIV was funding the ruinously expensive War of the Spanish Succession, and gold coinage was being called in, re-tariffed upward, and reissued with regularity — a fiscal sleight of hand that kept the treasury nominally solvent while quietly taxing anyone who held coins between edicts.
The "8 Ls" configuration places this among the later variants in the long series of Louis d'or types, distinguished in Gadoury and Droulers by precise die characteristics that serious collectors track closely.