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Ecu - Charles I
| Issuer | Arches-Charleville, Principality of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1611 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 20.07 g |
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| Obverse description | A displayed imperial-style eagle with spread wings occupies the central field, its single head crowned and turned to the right, bearing on its breast an escutcheon charged with a radiant sun face. The date 1611 appears in the lower field, flanked by the denomination mark XXX. A beaded inner border separates the central device from the surrounding circular Latin legend. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Charleville was a planned town founded in 1606 by Charles de Gonzague, Duke of Nevers, who obtained imperial recognition of his sovereign rights over the tiny principality specifically to gain minting privileges. The right to strike full-weight silver écus was a deliberate assertion of quasi-regal status by a French peer operating in the cracks between Valois exhaustion and Bourbon consolidation. Charles pushed that privilege hard in the early years, producing coinage that mimicked royal French weight standards almost exactly — hence the 20-gram specification — while remaining technically outside royal monetary jurisdiction.
The Dav EC II attribution places this firmly within the broader Rhenish-influenced lordship coinage series. Charleville's mint operated only sporadically, which limits the survivor pool considerably.