Écu d'or à la couronne - Charles VII 2e type

Charles VII introduced this second-type écu in 1435, the same year the Treaty of Arras ended the Burgundian alliance with England — a diplomatic breakthrough that fundamentally shifted the balance of the Hundred Years' War in France's favor. The crown's finances had been erratic for decades, and maintaining a stable gold coinage was as much a political act as an economic one.

The shift from the first type involved adjustments to the crown's rendering above the shield, a detail that allowed contemporaries — and allows collectors now — to distinguish issues across Charles's long reign. Duplessy's classification separates these precisely by crown type.