131

1693-M [Toulouse Mint] Sol de 15 Deniers, Gadoury 91 type.

Currency:CAD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:200.00 CAD Estimated At:400.00 - 500.00 CAD
1693-M [Toulouse Mint] Sol de 15 Deniers, Gadoury 91 type.
SOLD
275.00CAD+ (55.00) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2019 May 02 @ 18:37UTC-4 : AST/EDT

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-M [Toulouse Mint] Sol de 15 Deniers, Gadoury 91 type. Very Fine, well struck overall, just a few letters on the obverse weak at the extreme left, the rest mostly sharp and with a full date and mintmark. This piece is struck in copper, and is an extremely rare CONTEMPORARY COUNTERFEIT of the Sol de 15 Deniers, struck from hand-cut dies that are somewhat crude, but in an overall style that is close enough to the genuine pieces that it would have been accepted in circulation, especially if part of a group of coins. There is no trace of original silvering on the piece, and it is likely that none was there to begin with (other counterfeits in this series are known with and without silvering). Some of the counterfeits of this type are known struck on rolled out Double Tournois pieces, a coin that was worth 2 Deniers – there was clearly signficant profit potential if the counterfeiter was able to circulate it at 15 Deniers (or even at a slight discount from that value), and while counterfeiting billon issues was still a crime, the authorities would not have spent as much time or effort in their pursuit, at least compared to those who counterfeited silver and gold coins (this was the same in England where authorities turned a blind eye to counterfeit copper coinages but would imprison or occasionally execute those convicted of counterfeiting precious metal coinage). Extremely rare, few of the contemporary counterfeits have survived, especially as there was no real collector interest in them at the time or, indeed, for several centuries after they were struck.