Liard with three lilies - Louis XIV

The liard was reintroduced under Louis XIV by an edict of 1654 specifically to address the chronic shortage of small change plaguing everyday commerce — copper coinage had been deeply unpopular following repeated debasements, and billon offered a face-saving compromise. The 1656 issues came from multiple provincial mints simultaneously, producing significant variation in flan quality and silver content that often falls below the nominal .104 standard on assayed examples.