Louis d'or (Louis XIII)
1640 ・ gold ・ 17th century ・ Louis XIII
In March 1640, by the ordinance of Louis XIII, a gold coin bearing the king's name was born — the louis d'or — and for some 150 years, until the Revolution, it was the anchor gold coin of France. The engraver Jean Warin brought the press into the Paris mint and struck coins perfectly round with even edges. The purpose was to prevent rognage, the shaving of the rim to steal gold. Where the Japanese Keichō koban showed its fineness with punch marks, France shut out tampering through the precision of a machine. Two different answers to the same problem of trust.