FRANCE / CAPÉTIENS - FRANCE / ROYAL Louis XIII (1610-1643). Essai de dix louis d'or (100 livres) à la tête laurée 1640, A, Paris.

FRANCE / CAPETIANS - FRANCE / ROYAL
Louis XIII (1610-1643). Essai de dix louis d'or (100 livres) à la tête laurée 1640, A, Paris. PCGS Genuine Damage-AU Detail (51879707).
Av. LVD. XIII. D. G. - FR. ET. NAV. REX. King's laurelled head right, below (date).
Rv. CHRISTVS. REGNAT. VINCIT. ET. IMPERAT. Cross formed of eight Ls, each arm crowned, with A in a heart-shaped circle, cantoned by four lilies diverging from the center.
Dy.1294 - G.62 - Kind/BnF 1466 (smooth tr.) - Drs (1987) PP1 - KM.114 - Fr.406 ; Gold - 67,38 g - 44 mm - 6 h
From the collection of Abbé Jacques Thilliez, Burgan sale, November 12, 2021, no. 158 and previously Burgan, Vente sur Offres 28, December 23, 1991, no. 113.
PCGS Genuine Damage-AU Detail (51879707).
With a small corner defect known from IM de IMPERAT, this corner was also used to strike the Huit louis (same diameter but reduced weight). This type is known with fluted edge (our copy) or smooth edge (BnF no. 1466, same corners). A copy with minimal handling marks, the barely cleaned surfaces show slight hairlines. A slight patina is forming. Spectacular and very rare. Superb.
The manufacture of Gold multiples in modules of 8 or 10 louis by Jean Warin is known from two documents in the Archives Nationales, published and analyzed by Fernand Arbez and Christian Charlet, Une médaille d'or de 100 livres, à l'effigie de Louis XIII, volée et restituée à Jean Warin en 1641, BSFN, mars 2014, p.66-70. Multiples of 54 g or 67.5 g louis have been described as 8 and 10 louis d'or coins since Hoffmann's 1878 work, and reproduced as such by Ciani in 1926, Duplessy in 1989 and 1999, Droulers in various editions, etc. However, for F. Leblanc in 1690, these copies were listed as "pièces de plaisir". More recently, J. Lafaurie and P. Prieur, in the unpublished Volume 3 of their work, les monnaies des rois de France, consider these examples to be tests of unadopted types. Subsequently, the archival texts published by Arbez and Charlet first confirm the date of these trials, which are indeed in the hand of Jean Warin in 1640. However, these trials of monetiform productions remained without legal tender. We have adopted their classification as Essai de 4, 8 or 10 louis d'or.