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Gold Louis with long wick - Louis XIV
| Issuer | Monnaie de Paris |
|---|---|
| Year | 1646-1660 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Youthful draped bust of Louis XIV facing right, with long flowing hair (the so-called 'à la mèche longue' portrait), as struck during his minority reign. The mint date appears in the lower field beneath the bust. The encircling Latin legend names the king as Louis XIV by the grace of God, King of France and Navarre. |
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| Obverse lettering | LVD. XIIII. D. G. FR. ET. NAV. REX. . 1651 . |
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| Additional information |
The "louis d'or à la mèche longue" takes its collector name from the young king's unbound hair — a detail tied directly to Louis XIV's age at accession. He inherited the throne in 1643 at four years old, and the long-haired portrait persisted through this entire emission as a deliberate visual marker of youth and dynastic continuity during the regency of Anne of Austria and Mazarin's ministry. France's finances were under severe strain from the Thirty Years' War and the Fronde rebellions, which erupted in 1648 and disrupted mint operations across multiple provincial workshops simultaneously.
Several mints struck this type, each identified by a mint mark — Paris, Lyon, Rouen among them — and survival rates vary considerably by facility.