France 1585-B ecu d'or
This specimen was lot 6790 in Stack's Bowers NYINC sale (New York, January 2022), where it sold for $1,680. The catalog description[1] noted, "FRANCE. Ecu d'Or, 1585-B. Rouen Mint. Henri III. NGC MS-62. A well detailed and rich, honey golden colored coin with decent strike and just a few small areas of weakness in the peripheral legend. A few light marks appear in the fields but nothing that distracts from the overall pleasing appearance." This coin is called the écu d'or au soleil in Duplessy[2] with a face value of fifty sols tournois and is noted with many variations in obverse and reverse legends. The 1585-B is not a common date but is the most available for 1585.
Recorded mintage: 14,100, including a few half écus d'or.
Specification: 3.37 g, .958 fine gold, this specimen 3.38 g.
Catalog reference: Sb 4932, Fr-386; Dupl-1121.
- [2]Duplessy, Jean, Les Monnaies Françaises Royales de Hugues Capet à Louis XVI (987-1793), Tome II, 2e édition, Paris: Maison Platt, 1999.
- Sombart, Stéphan, Franciae IV: Catalogue des Monnaies Royales Françaises de François Ier à Henri IV (1540-1610), Paris: Éditions les Chevau-légers, 1997.
- 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.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, The 2022 NYINC Sale: World and Ancient Coins, featuring the Mark and Lottie Salton Collection and the Pat Johnson Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers LLC, 2021.
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