France, Louis XVI France jeton 1788 Louis XVI OPTIMO PRINCIPI equestrian statue Louis XV Bordeaux brass counter token Nuremberg Guyenne EF-UNC

France, jeton of 1788 on Louis XVI, brass, with the equestrian statue of Bordeaux.

Obverse: OPTIMO PRINCIPI. An equestrian statue to left on a high pedestal, below it a crowned shield between small figures, the date in the exergue.

Reverse: bust of Louis XVI to left in an embroidered coat, with the star of an order on the breast. Legend LVD XVI D G FR ET NAV REX.

OPTIMO PRINCIPI means: to the best of princes. The statue is among the best known images of this series. Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne completed the bronze equestrian statue of Louis XV for the Place Royale at Bordeaux in 1743, after a notorious failed casting and after decades of hesitation by a city that had not forgotten the harsh punishment following the revolt of 1675. It was unveiled on 19 August 1743, and that ceremony sealed the reconciliation of Bordeaux with royal authority. On 20 August 1792 it was taken down and sent to Rochefort to be melted into cannon. The bust on this jeton is not that of the rider but of Louis XVI, who succeeded his grandfather Louis XV in 1774. Counters of this Optimo Principi series were made at Nuremberg for the French market. Earlier issues of the same design are known as well, with the bust of Louis XV and the date in Roman numerals, for example MDCCXLIIII for 1744, shortly after the statue was unveiled. That same reverse therefore stayed in use for more than forty years, into the reign of Louis XVI.

A monument that was already gone four years after this piece was made.

vanzandwijkmunten: because one coin is never enough.

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Coins have been part of my life for almost thirty years. It started with the things I found in the ground as a boy, and it never stopped. First the searching, then the reading and figuring out, and the collecting. Dealing came much later, and even though it is how I make my living now, I still enjoy looking at every piece the way a collector does.

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Kind regards, Vincent

vanzandwijkmunten: Because one coin is never enough

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