1/2 Ecu - Louis XIII Count of Catalonia

Louis XIII was declared Count of Barcelona — not merely of Catalonia — in January 1641, after the Catalan Revolt drove the principality to renounce Philip IV of Spain and seek French protection. This coin belongs to that brief, strange episode when the French crown held nominal sovereignty over Catalonia, a situation that lasted until 1659 when the Treaty of the Pyrenees returned most of the territory to Spain while ceding Roussillon and Cerdagne to France permanently.

The issue had a short window of legitimacy. Louis XIII died in May 1643.