FRANCE - CHARLES X KING OF THE LEAGUE - ÉCU D’OR AU SOLEIL 1590 PARIS - PCGS MS61

Charles X, Cardinal de Bourbon, King of the League (1589-1590), écu d’or au soleil, first type, 1590, struck at Paris.

Obverse: crowned arms of France, topped by a sun breaking the legend. Legend CAROLVS X D G FRANCOR REX 1590, beginning at 6 o’clock. Reverse: cross annulated and fleurdelisée, with a quatrefoil at the centre. Legend CHRISTVS REGNAT VINCIT ET IMPERAT. Mint letter A (Paris) at the point of the shield.

A well-struck, complete example of a type very often weakly and softly struck. Mint State.

Note: uncle and godfather of Henri IV, Cardinal Charles de Bourbon was proclaimed king by the Catholic Leaguers as Charles X after the assassination of Henri III on 2 August 1589. He never reigned: a prisoner, he died at Fontenay-le-Comte on 9 May 1590. Yet the League, master of Paris, went on striking coins in his name for several years. This écu dated 1590 bears witness to that phantom reign, at the height of the Wars of Religion.