Catalog
Sol de billon Ste Dévote - Antoine I
| Issuer | Monaco |
|---|---|
| Year | 1703 |
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| Value | 1 Sol (1/20) |
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| Obverse description | Draped bust of Antoine I, Prince of Monaco, facing right, with long flowing curled hair. The effigy is rendered in a baroque portrait style typical of late 17th- to early 18th-century French coinage. The circular Latin legend reading ANT. I. D.G. PRIN. MONOECI. surrounds the portrait, abbreviated from Antonius I Dei Gratia Princeps Monoeci. The field is plain, and the coin bears a milled edge visible at the periphery. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Full-length standing figure of Saint Devote, the patron saint of Monaco, facing front with her right arm raised in a gesture of blessing or intercession and her left arm lowered at her side. The date 1703 is split across the field on either side of the figure, and the mint mark S.DE. (for Sainte Dévote) appears in the exergue below. The circular Latin legend TV. NOS. AB. HOSTE. PROT. surrounds the design, an abbreviation of Tu nos ab hoste protege, meaning 'Protect us from the enemy.' The overall design is simple and devotional in character, consistent with Monegasque ecclesiastical coinage of the period. |
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| Additional information |
Antoine I ruled Monaco under French suzerainty at a moment when Louis XIV's wars had drained metal reserves across the continent. Billon — a debased silver-copper alloy — was the practical answer to a shortage of fine silver, and Monaco's small-scale issues of this type circulated primarily within the principality itself, supplementing the French coinage that dominated regional commerce.
The Gadoury reference distinguishes between MC80 and MC80a, a die variety split likely reflecting minor differences in the positioning or rendering of the Ste. Dévote dedication — Monaco's patron saint whose cult had been central to Grimaldi dynastic identity since the medieval period.