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12 Deniers - Louis XVI FRANÇAIS
| Issuer | French Monarchy |
|---|---|
| Year | 1791-1793 |
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| Currency | Livre tournois (987-1795) |
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| Obverse description | Bare-headed bust of Louis XVI facing right, with naturalistically rendered curled hair tied at the nape with a ribbon bow, as designed by Pierre-Benjamin Duvivier. The king is portrayed in a plain truncation without drapery, reflecting the constitutional monarch's restrained civic imagery of the Revolutionary period. The circumferential legend reads LOUIS XVI ROI DES FRANÇAIS, using the new constitutional title replacing the traditional formula 'Roi de France et de Navarre'. The mint mark BB for Strasbourg appears below the bust truncation. The coin field is bordered by a continuous dentilated rim. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | LA NATION LA LOI LE ROI 12 D. 1792·4· DE LA LIB |
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| Additional information |
The "FRANÇAIS" coinage of 1791 emerged directly from the Constitutional Monarchy's effort to rebrand royal authority after the National Assembly forced Louis XVI to accept the new constitution. The inscription change from the traditional Latin titulature to the French vernacular "ROI DES FRANÇAIS" was a deliberate political concession — the king was no longer king of France as a territory, but king of the French as a people, a distinction the Assembly considered fundamental.
Production continued into 1793, by which point Louis had been guillotined in January. Some dies remained in use past his execution before the Republic's own coinage superseded the type entirely.