1693 Louis XIIii (Iv) Ecu. Bad Strike? Fake?

Hi Roma,

What you have there is an overstrike (reformation in French) of a 1693 ecu aux palmes over an ecu aux 8L (your 2nd Numista link). What makes the inscriptions blurred is that the host coin, the ecu aux 8L, is partly visible through the overstrike. The "CHRS" at the bottom of the reverse belongs to the host coin, not the 1693 coin. This is not at all unusual for these issues and can make a difference in pricing: An overstrike where the host coin is still nicely visible can bring a premium.

I cannot make out the mint on your coin (the mint letter is at the bottom of the reverse, but there you can only see the host coin), so I think €150 is too high. Below €100 would be more reasonable.

The Numista link for the ecu aux palmes: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces27861.html

On my own example of this coin there are traces not only from the ecu aux 8L host coin - although not as evident as on the coin you show - but also from its host coin (since that was also an overstrike!), an ecu from 1688.



BTW: Is the coin really an ecu (that is, the size in the Numista links you provided)? From the proportions of the design elements it looks more like a 1/2 ecu (but you need the size to be sure, no denomination on these).

@era, do you find many/most european silver coins are cleaned? Maybe we've talked about this before, but I find most large silver crown coins here are cleaned.