FRANCE - LOUIS XIV - LOUIS D’OR À LA TÊTE LAURÉE 1659 AMIENS - PCGS AU58 - TOP POP

Louis XIV (1643-1715), louis d’or au buste juvénile, laureate head, 1659, struck at Amiens.

Obverse: youthful laureate head of the king right, with long curling hair, date 1659 below. Legend LVD XIIII D G FR ET NAV REX. Reverse: cross of eight addorsed L’s in pairs, each arm topped by a crown, a fleur-de-lis in each angle. Legend CHRS REGN VINC IMP, for Christus regnat, vincit, imperat. Mint letter X (Amiens) at the centre, within a circle.

Well struck. Light wear on the high points. Attractive golden colour. Extremely rare for Amiens. About Uncirculated.

Top Pop: this is the only graded example!

Note: 1659 was the year of the Treaty of the Pyrenees, signed on 7 November. It ended twenty-four years of war with Spain and provided for Louis XIV’s marriage to the Infanta Maria Theresa. The king was then twenty-one. His portrait had left behind the child of the mèche longue type for the features of the young sovereign who would rule alone after Mazarin’s death in 1661.