Liard - Francis small bust

Château-Regnault was a tiny principality on the Meuse in the Ardennes, and its right to strike copper coinage was perennially contested by French royal authorities who viewed autonomous seigneurial mints with increasing suspicion in the early seventeenth century. Francis of Bourbon-Conti, who held the title, exploited whatever window remained before Paris could close it. The distinction between this small-bust variety and the large-bust type — both struck within the same two-year window — points to a mid-run die change rather than a deliberate redesign, likely reflecting a new engraver or worn working dies.