The menut was a small Catalan fractional coin whose continued production under Louis XIV reflected the political awkwardness of Roussillon's status during and after the Thirty Years' War. France had seized the region from Spain incrementally, and the Treaty of the Pyrenees wouldn't formalize the transfer until 1659 — meaning Perpignan's mint was striking coins for a French king while the territory's sovereignty remained legally unresolved. The Dy royales 1611 type bridges that ambiguous window.
The menut was a small Catalan fractional coin whose continued production under Louis XIV reflected the political awkwardness of Roussillon's status during and after the Thirty Years' War. France had seized the region from Spain incrementally, and the Treaty of the Pyrenees wouldn't formalize the transfer until 1659 — meaning Perpignan's mint was striking coins for a French king while the territory's sovereignty remained legally unresolved. The Dy royales 1611 type bridges that ambiguous window.