1 Ecu - Louis XVI Français

The "Français" title on this ecu reflects a constitutionally mandated change: the National Assembly's 1791 constitution stripped Louis XVI of the designation "Roi de France et de Navarre" and replaced it with "Roi des Français," a deliberate reframing of sovereignty from territorial to popular. Coins carrying this legend were struck while the king was already a prisoner in the Tuileries, and production at several mints continued even as his trial was being prepared.

Louis was executed in January 1793. Silver ecus bearing his name were still in circulation for years afterward — the Republic had no immediate replacement of equivalent weight and fineness ready.