Double Tournois - Louis XIII Stenay mint, 11th type

The Stenay mint had a complicated existence by the 1630s — located in the Meuse valley, it operated under persistent pressure from the Thirty Years' War grinding through the surrounding region. Louis XIII's administration kept peripheral mints like Stenay producing small copper currency partly to assert fiscal control over contested territory, and partly because the chronic shortage of low-denomination coinage was a genuine problem for local commerce in wartime frontier zones.

The 11th type designation reflects the remarkable number of successive modifications made to the Double Tournois across Louis XIII's reign — more distinct type changes than any comparable French copper series of the century.