France 1598-StP 1/4 ecu

photo courtesy Stack's

File:France 1598StP quart ecu obv 600.jpg

the same specimen

File:France 1598StP quart ecu rev 600.jpg

from the Mountain Groan Collection

This specimen was struck by the hammer at St-Palais in Béarn during the reign of Henry IV, founder of the Bourbon dynasty (1589-1793). This was the largest silver coin regularly struck in France prior to the introduction of milled coinage in the 1640's. It had a face value of fifteen sols tournois. The SCWC lists an expensive quarter écu for St-Palais (KM 31) but these are probably the scarce machine-struck specimens; as the SCWC offers no picture, one cannot be definite.

Recorded mintage: unknown but somewhat available.

Specification: 9.71 g, 0.917 fine silver.

Catalog reference: Sb 4710 (9 ex.), KM 1.1?, Dupl-1238.

Source:

• Duplessy, Jean, Les Monnaies Françaises Royales de Hugues Capet à Louis XVI (987-1793), Tome II, 2e édition, Paris: Maison Platt, 1999.
• Roberts, James N., The Silver Coins of Medieval France (476-1610 AD), S. Salem, NY: Attic Books, 1996.
• Sombart, Stéphan, Franciae IV: Catalogue des Monnaies Royales Françaises de François Ier à Henri IV (1540-1610), Paris: Éditions les Chevau-légers, 1997.
• Cuhaj, George S., and Thomas Michael, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1601-1700, 6th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2014.

Link to:

• 1597-L quart d'écu au marteau
• 1597 quart d'écu du Béarn, Morlaàs mint
• 1598-L huitième d'écu
• 1599-L quart d'écu au marteau
• 1600-A double tournois
• 1600 quart d'écu de Navarre
• 1603-D demi-franc
• Coins and currency dated 1598
• return to French royal coinage (to 1793)