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1722-Q [Perpignan Mint] John Law Sol.

Currency:CAD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:250.00 CAD Estimated At:500.00 - 600.00 CAD
1722-Q [Perpignan Mint] John Law Sol.
SOLD
250.00CAD+ buyer's premium (50.00)
This item SOLD at 2019 May 02 @ 19:27UTC-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.

1722-Q [Perpignan Mint] John Law Sol. Choice Extremely Fine, a superb grade for ANY Perpignan issue, which are usually found indifferently struck on wretched planchet stock – the present coin is anything but! Well struck, full legends, date and mintmark, and with sharp design details on either side. The planchet is a gorgeous light golden brown, with a few specks of darker toning, the surfaces hard, with just the bare minimum of light circulation marks. A small planchet clip at the right obverse touches none of the legend on either side. Perpignan is the most unusual mint in the entire series, having started coinage in 1722, the same year as La Rochelle and Bordeaux, but while those two mints ceased coining the series the following year, Perpignan continued – striking the Half Sol in 1724 and sporadically striking the Sol denomination for another decade, finally ending the series in 1734 (not all dates from 1724-34 were coined). The Perpignan mint was the furthest from Paris, and quite close to the border with Spain – whether its officials never received an order to discontinue this coinage, or whether it was needed for local circulation and continued (with or without approval from Paris) is unknown. It is usually amongst the rarest mints for any of the series it coined, and has a special tie with the North American colonies since it was the only mint that produced the 1717 copper 6 and 12 Denier pieces authorized for Canada – when this coinage was aborted it is possible that the remaining unstruck planchets were used for the Half Sol and Sol denominations in the present series (Perpignan struck no Liards, and it is telling that there were no 1717 coins authorized that would have been on that size planchet, whereas the Sol and Half Sol do correspond to the 1717 coinage sizes). In any event, this is one of the most pleasing Perpignan issues we have seen. While only considered scarce – Smith noted 12 out of 262 Sols he examined – few of those are choice.