You will not avoid them !

[Qcumbor]

Coming here, you'd think you'd get rid of the Dombes guy ?

No, you're not 😄

Just to celebrate this new place opening I'd like to share an exceptional coin I got recently at auction.

As you may know since I harass you with my cherished Dombes principality, its gold coinage is rare to exceedingly rare, some types and years being only known by a handful, some even unique. It's the case here with this 1576 demi pistole, that's been stuck in a family collection for more than a century and popped up at Gadoury auction last march. 1576 was unknown as a year of mintage for those, and absent from every reference book and catalog.

 

Louis II de Montpensier (1560-1582), Demi-pistole - 1576 Atelier de Trévoux
+ LVDOVI . D . MONTISP . D . DOMBAR Ecu de Bourbon couronné
+ DNS . ADIVT . ET . REDEM . MEVS . 1576 : Croix feuillue
3.29 gr - 
Unique exemplaire à ce jour
Ref : Divo Dombes -, Friedberg -, Poey d'Avant -, Mantellier -, Sirand -, Boudeau -

Provenance : collection Fernand David, vente Gadoury du 12/03/2022 # 545

Q

[Furryfrog02]

Glad you made it @Qcumbor 🙂 And with a beautiful coin to start things off with!

[Alegandron]

Very nice Cuke! I was hoping you would unload some Dombes Bombs!

[Qcumbor]

4 hours ago, Alegandron said:

I was hoping you would unload some Dombes Bombs

You asked ...

Here's a virtual tray of the whole bunch to date :

 

To make it more precise and clear to all about how rare they are :

1st row, left to right : Jean II franc à cheval (6 known) ; Pierre II franc à cheval (17 to 20 known in two types with a minor obverse legend variation)

2nd row : Louis II pistole 1578 (50+ known) ; Louis II pistole 1579 (unique to date) ; Louis II demi-pistole 1576 (unique to date)

3rd row : Louis II demi-pistole 1578 (50+ known) ; Louis II demi-pistole 1579/8 (<5 known) : Francois II pistole 1587 (the best of 2 known)

4th row : Gaston d'Orleans pistole 1640 (5 known, Gaston d'Orleans écu 1641 (probably 20+ known) ; Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans sequin (probably 20+ known)

🙂 Q

 

[Alegandron]

I never tire of your Dombes, and never tire of D'or !

[Curtisimo]

8 hours ago, Qcumbor said:

You asked ...

Here's a virtual tray of the whole bunch to date :

 

To make it more precise and clear to all about how rare they are :

1st row, left to right : Jean II franc à cheval (6 known) ; Pierre II franc à cheval (17 to 20 known in two types with a minor obverse legend variation)

2nd row : Louis II pistole 1578 (50+ known) ; Louis II pistole 1579 (unique to date) ; Louis II demi-pistole 1576 (unique to date)

3rd row : Louis II demi-pistole 1578 (50+ known) ; Louis II demi-pistole 1579/8 (<5 known) : Francois II pistole 1587 (the best of 2 known)

4th row : Gaston d'Orleans pistole 1640 (5 known, Gaston d'Orleans écu 1641 (probably 20+ known) ; Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans sequin (probably 20+ known)

🙂 Q

 

I love this collection! World class!!! 🤑

[Qcumbor]

Thanks folks.

Q

[Qcumbor]

Below is another set in the same Dombes series, that I have shown on the other forum but fits here too I think

Anne Marie Louise de Bourbon, AKA La Grande Mademoiselle, was born to Gaston d'Orleans and Marie de Montpensier in 1627 CE. A few days after her birth her mother passed away and she became sole heir of the principality of Dombes. Until she'd been emancipated by her cousin Louis XIV "Le Roi Soleil" in 1650 CE, her father (and Louis XIV's uncle) Gaston d'Orleans ruled the Dombes as regent.

For those interested in reading a little more here's the Wikipedia page on the subject of the Dombes principality (in english) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dombes

Anne Marie Louise coinage is abundant, especially 1/12 ecu also known as Luigini, which have been shamelessely copied by other rulers as they were very popular in the whole Middle East at the moment, purportedly because they featured a female bust on the obverse. Other than that are liards, a rather crude billon coinage, usually struck on short flans (finding one with complete legends and date is quite unusual) that you can find by the million. Some other very rare denominations exist, such as a gold sequin, and exceedingly rare ecus and 1/6 ecus

The demi écu is quite a big chunck of silver (size between half-dollar and dollar at 33/33.5 mm) with an impressive look to it.

The 1673 demi ecu is an easy one. I think at least one or two hundreds of them survive nowadays (yes, it seems very low, but remember there are only a few lunatics crazy enough to collect them  )

All the others known to exist are key dates : I assume a total of about 20 examples are known to exist : 1665 (2) ; 1669 (<10), 1672 (<5) and 1674 (2).
 

The complete set of demi ecu known to exist as of today, and the gold sequin

 

Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans (1650-1693), Sequin d'or

Atelier de Trévoux
FRANC PRINC - SM TREVO, Saint Marc à droite remettant un étendard au prince à gauche. Dans le champ DVX
SIT TX ADIVTO - REGIS TE DOMBA, Le Christ bénissant de face, entouré de seize étoiles
3,47 gr
Ref : Divo Dombes # 219, Friedberg # 123, Mantellier -, Poey d'Avant # 5134 (Poey d'Avant attribuait cette monnaie à François II de Bourbon Montpensier)
Ex Kuenker

 

Q