Gold Ecu of Provence - Henry II

Henry II inherited Provence as a distinct comital title absorbed into the French crown through the 1481 union, and Aix maintained its own mint with regional striking privileges well into the sixteenth century. This issue falls within the first years of his reign, before the monetary ordinances of the 1550s consolidated French gold coinage more aggressively under royal control. The Aix mint's output during this window was modest, and Gadoury's rarity notation reflects genuine scarcity rather than collector inflation.