5 Groats - Louis XIII Barcelona

The 1641–1643 dating places this coin squarely within the Corpus de Sang uprising and its immediate aftermath — the moment Catalonia severed from Castile and placed itself under French protection, recognizing Louis XIII as Count of Barcelona. The Principality needed its own coinage immediately, and this issue was the result: a rushed assertion of a new political alignment struck while Spanish troops were still in the field.

French control of Catalonia lasted until 1659, when the Treaty of the Pyrenees returned the region to Spain. Issues from this narrow window are the only Catalan coins to bear a French monarch's name.