France (1541)-Z ecu d'or
This specimen was lot 42171 in Stack's Bowers ANA sale (Chicago, August 2024), where it sold for $3,120. The catalog description[1] noted, "FRANCE. Ecu d'Or, ND (1541-47)-2. Rennes Mint. Francis I. NGC AU-58. Obverse: Crowned coat-of-arms; Reverse: Greek cross within tressure of arches with inward-facing lis on cusps. Though some strike doubling is noted, this near-Mint example stands as a charming representative from a RARE mint." This type was struck after the reform of 1540 instituted letter mintmarks but before coinage was routinely dated. Friedberg also mentions a demi-écu d'or à la croisette. This coin had a face value of 45 sols tournois. We believe this coin was indeed struck at Rennes but that mint never used a "2" mintmark. For the period 1540-48, Rennes was assigned the letter "Z", which appears garbled on this double struck coin. It adopted the mintmark "9" in 1551 and used that mark until at least 1762. The Aix mint was initially assigned the mintmark "7", which was changed to "&" in 1552, probably because it was confused with the "Z".
Recorded mintage: est. 15,903.
Specification: 3.43 g, 0.958 fine gold; this specimen 3.41 g.
Catalog reference: Fr-351; Sb-4878 (six examples reported), Dupl-889.
- Duplessy, Jean, Les Monnaies Françaises Royales de Hugues Capet à Louis XVI (987-1793), Tome II, 2e édition, Paris: Maison Platt, 1999.
- Friedberg, Arthur L. and Ira S. Friedberg, Gold Coins of the World, From Ancient Times to the Present, 9th ed., Clifton, NJ: Coin and Currency Institute, 2017.
- Sombart, Stéphan, Franciae IV: Catalogue des Monnaies Royales Françaises de François Ier à Henri IV (1540-1610), Paris: Éditions les Chevau-légers, 1997.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, August 2024 Global Showcase Auction, World & Ancient Coins, featuring The Emilio M. Ortiz Collection, The Richard Margolis Collection and The Rutherford Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2024.
Link to:
- (1540)-M écu d'or au soleil
- (1541-47)-M double tournois à la croisette
- (1541)-A douzain à la croisette
- (1541)-D douzain à la croisette
- (1541)-A écu d'or à la croisette
- (1541)-B écu d'or à la croisette
- (1541)-G écu d'or à la croisette
- (1541)-K écu d'or à la croisette
- (1541)-L écu d'or à la croisette
- (1541)-M écu d'or à la croisette
- (1541)-N écu d'or à la croisette
- (1542) écu d'or à la croisette du Dauphiné, Romans mint
- Coins and currency dated 1541
- return to French royal coinage (to 1793)