NGC recently certified a rare French gold coin that was struck between1314 and 1316 during the reign of Louis X at Royal d’Or. Graded as NGC AU 55, only six such coins exist today and all of them were found in 1861 in the Treasure of Deauville. They were sold to collectors immediately and one was offered to the Bibliotheque National de France in 1931. Nobody knows about the remaining examples, except for the one graded by NGC.

The coins were released to honour King Louis X’s great-grandfather, King Louis IX. The latter was the only French king who was canonized by the Catholic Church. Louis IX, aka Saint Louis, took part in crusades and acquired pieces of the True Cross and the Crown of Thorns in 1239. The obverse side depicts the St. Louis Crown while the reverse side depicts the True Cross and Crown of Thorns.

The coin is almost identical to the ones issued by King Louis IX. Experts believe that the designs were duplicated to honour and promote Louis IX’s works as a saint. The beautiful coin would be showcased at the ANA World’s Fair of Money from 13th to 14th August.

A 1690 engraving shows one of the Louis IX Royal d’Ors while the rest are unknown. A report about this engraving and Louis X Royal d’Or was published recently by a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon, named Francois Planet.

Image Courtesy: NGC