FRANCE - LOUIS XV - DEMI-LOUIS D’OR À LA CROIX DE MALTE 1719 LYON - NGC AU58

Louis XV (1715-1774), demi-louis d’or à la croix de Malte, also known as à la croix du Saint-Esprit, 1719, struck at Lyon.

Obverse: child bust of the king right, laureate and draped. Legend LVD XV D G FR ET NAV REX 1719. Mint letter D (Lyon) below the bust. Reverse: eight-pointed cross with knobbed tips, a medallion with three fleurs-de-lis at the centre. Legend CHRISTVS REGNAT VINCIT IMPERAT, with a privy mark at the start of the legend.

Slightly off-centre strike. Close to as-struck condition, with original lustre still present. An extremely rare type, especially in this grade. Only a few examples known. About Uncirculated.

Note: this type was born of the recoinage of 1718, under the Regency of Philippe d’Orléans, when Louis XV was only eight years old. The louis fell to 9.79 g, against 12.23 g for the louis de Noailles it replaced, and the half louis followed in the same proportion. Struck only in 1718 and 1719, at the height of John Law’s System, it is one of the most short-lived types of the reign. It vanished amid the constant monetary changes that accompanied the System’s collapse. Struck in far smaller numbers than the louis, half louis of this type are today among the hardest gold coins of Louis XV to acquire.