Louis d'or

The name derives from the depiction of the portrait of King Louis on one side of the coin; the French royal coat of arms is on the reverse.

In actual practice the principal gold coin circulating in France in the earlier 17th century had been Spanish: the 6.7-gram double escudo or "doubloon", of which the Louis d'or was an explicit copy.

[4] Since they were still made by hand, cheaters could shave bits of gold from the edges of the coins before passing them on, an illegal process called clipping.

To fix this, Jean Varin, a medalist from Liège, installed machinery in the Paris mint which made perfectly round coins so that clipping could not go undetected.

[4] The new demi Louis d'or maintained the weight of the old écu d’or, but decreasing its fineness to 22 carats, allowing it to circulate at a value of five livres.

In July 1725, the ship Chameau left France for Quebec, carrying dozens of military and political VIPs and a fortune in gold and silver, but sank near the end of the voyage.

[14] In 1961, a discovery of cannons scattered on the sea bottom alerted Alex Storm, a diver working part-time on a fishing trawler from Louisbourg.

Reverse: the royal monogram (4 double "L"s) surmounted by a crown with fleur de lis and the motto "CHRS REGN VINC IMP" (Christus regnat, vincit, et imperat.