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Blanc with crown of Provence - Louis XII 2nd type, lily-crown
| Issuer | Kingdom of France |
|---|---|
| Year | 1501-1515 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | GadR1#146 var. royales#668 var. |
| Obverse description | Central field bears the crowned royal arms of France, consisting of three fleurs-de-lis arranged on a shield surmounted by a royal crown with fleurons, all within a beaded inner circle. The shield is rendered in the Gothic heraldic style typical of late medieval French coinage. A circular Latin legend surrounds the central device, reading LVDOVICVS DEI GRATIA FRANCORUM REX PROVINCIE COMES, abbreviated as struck. The entire composition is characteristic of the hammered billon coinage of Louis XII, with irregular flan shape and moderately worn relief. |
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| Obverse lettering | LVDOVI D G FRAn REX PRO COm L T |
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| Additional information |
The blanc à la couronne was already an aging denomination by the time Louis XII struck this type — its origins lay in the monetary reforms of Charles VII in the 1430s, and successive kings had progressively debased the billon content across decades of fiscal pressure. Louis XII's administration maintained the denomination partly out of monetary conservatism and partly because the blanc remained the workhorse of small retail transactions in a kingdom that had never successfully replaced it with anything more convenient.
The "var." notation against both Gadoury and the Royales reference reflects genuine die diversity within this type — the lily-crown blans were struck at multiple provincial mints simultaneously, and workshop-level variation in die engraving was routine rather than exceptional.