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1693-Crowned S [Troyes Mint] Sol de 15 Deniers, Gadoury 91.

Currency:CAD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:125.00 CAD Estimated At:300.00 - 350.00 CAD
1693-Crowned S [Troyes Mint] Sol de 15 Deniers, Gadoury 91.

Buyer’s Premiums will be added on all items as per the Terms & Conditions of the sale. Invoices will be emailed out after The Toronto Coin Expo.

1693-Crowned S [Troyes Mint] Sol de 15 Deniers, Gadoury 91. Very Fine or so, somewhat weakly struck on a virgin planchet. The legend is weak at the extreme right obverse and corresponding area of the reverse, but just a few letters are lost. The date is weaker but all visible, the distinct mintmark strong. This is highly important because for this issue there are both a regular “S” mintmark (Reims mint) and a Crowned S (Troyes) – and this is even more confusing than with the Crowned M piece described above. From 1651-6 the Troyes mint used the regular “S” mintmark until it stopped making coins in that final year; in 1680 Reims took over that mintmark and used it until 1715. But Troyes started producing coins again in 1690 – but it couldn’t use its old “S” mintmark since that was being used elsewhere, so instead it used a Crowned S from 1690-3. Even at the time this must have been confusing, so in 1693 Troyes switched to a “V” mintmark, which it used until it ceased coinage production in the mid-1740s. Troyes did not strike this denomination in 1692, so the Crowned S mintmark is a single-year type coin in the Sol series. It is also one of the rarest, with a mintage of just 17,210 pieces, all struck on virgin planchets – compare that to the 3,693,351 that Paris struck on virgin planchets in the same year! Gadoury rightly values it higher than most of the other 1693-dated issues for this number. Given the paltry original mintage, it is unlikely that more than a few have survived to this time. Especially important as being a single-year issue with this mintmark.