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1/4 Ecu - Louis XIII Count of Catalonia
| Issuer | France |
|---|---|
| Year | 1642 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1/4 Silver Ecu |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Laureate and draped bust of Louis XIII facing right, rendered in high relief with fine engraving characteristic of Jean Warin's medallic style. The king is depicted with flowing hair beneath a laurel wreath, wearing classical armor with decorative pauldron. The Latin royal titulature encircles the effigy in the legend, reading from lower left. The field is smooth and the coin is bounded by a continuous beaded border. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Louis XIII was declared Count of Barcelona — not merely of Catalonia broadly — in January 1641, after the Catalan Revolt drove the principality to renounce Philip IV of Spain and seek French protection. This coin is a direct product of that political rupture. The French crown struck coinage for Catalonia as a concrete assertion of sovereignty over a territory it would hold, tenuously, until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 returned most of it to Spain.
The series is short-lived by definition, making surviving pieces genuinely scarce rather than artificially so.