1/4 Ecu - Antonio I

Antonio I ruled Monaco as a vassal of France under Louis XIV, and 1707 was a particularly precarious year — the War of the Spanish Succession had pushed French finances to the brink, and small client states like Monaco operated their mints under considerable political pressure to maintain stable coinage even as larger powers debased theirs. Antonio's silver issues from this period are genuinely scarce; Monaco's population was tiny and its mint output correspondingly limited, meaning surviving examples in any grade are infrequently encountered at auction.