Denier Tournois - Louis XIII Riom, 1st type

Louis XIII's copper denier tournois was struck at Riom — a mint operating in the Auvergne whose activity during this reign was intermittent and often cut short by royal administrative reshuffling of provincial minting rights. The 1st type designation distinguishes it from later modifications to the die standard introduced as the crown attempted to stabilize small-denomination copper coinage, which had become chronically debased and counterfeited throughout the early seventeenth century.

Riom's output for this type across 1624–1625 was modest. Examples bearing the mint's mark are appreciably scarcer than those from Paris or Lyon.