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1693-Crowned M [Metz Mint] Sol de 15 Deniers, Gadoury 91.

Currency:CAD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:150.00 CAD Estimated At:300.00 - 400.00 CAD
1693-Crowned M [Metz Mint] Sol de 15 Deniers, Gadoury 91.
SOLD
210.00CAD+ (42.00) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2019 May 02 @ 18:38UTC-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-Crowned M [Metz Mint] Sol de 15 Deniers, Gadoury 91. Uncirculated, struck on a virgin planchet, which has a pre-strike flaw at the edge at the left obverse, but is completely unworn, and shows substantial original luster and silvering. The legends, date, mintmark and all the design details are all sharp, save for the N of NOMEN which is weakened by some light planchet roughness. These Sols were workhorse coins, and circulated extensively, and their condition shows it. The few higher grade pieces such as this were carefully saved, likely by collectors of the day. One of the more confusing things with French mintmarks is that letters were occasionally used by more than one mint, sometimes with slight variation, as is the case here. The letter “M” meant the Toulouse mint (as seen in the above lots), but an “M” with a crown on top of it was the mintmark for Metz. To make things even more difficult, Metz changed to an AA mintmark later in 1693, meaning that there are Recoined sols of later dates that were struck at the same mint, but with a different mintmark. Luckily, the Crowned M mintmark was only used on this year (no 1692-dated examples from this mint are known), which makes it a one year type coin, and quite important as such for the collector. Gadoury lists no mintage and was uncertain whether the output was recoined or on virgin planchets, which suggests that he had never seen one;. It remains an extremely rare issue and is almost never seen today.