Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1/5 Ecu - Louis XV
| Issuer | Royal French Mint |
|---|---|
| Year | 1773-1774 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1/5 Silver Ecu |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Laureate and draped bust of Louis XV facing left, his hair arranged in flowing curls tied at the nape, with a laurel wreath crowning his head. The engraver's signature 'R.FILI.' (Röettiers fils) appears beneath the truncation. The circumferential legend reads LUD•XV•D•G•FR•ET•NA•REX•BD•, identifying the king as Louis XV, by the grace of God, King of France and Navarre, Lord of Béarn. The coin features a finely milled outer border of beaded denticles, characteristic of the high-quality French royal coinage of the period. The portrait reflects the refined neoclassical style favored at the late Bourbon court. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
By 1773, France's finances were in chronic disorder, and the mint system that produced this coin was itself part of the problem — a sprawling network of provincial mints, each with its own overhead, that Louis XV's government repeatedly attempted to rationalize and never quite did. The 1/5 écu denomination had been introduced earlier in the century as a practical subdivision, but by this late period of the reign it was being struck in diminishing quantities as silver supplies tightened ahead of the monetary reforms that would come under Louis XVI.
Louis XV died in May 1774, making issues from that year's production transitional pieces struck under a king already gravely ill with smallpox.