Ecu de Calonne
The Ecu de Calonne is a silver coin that the Swiss medalist Jean-Pierre Droz designed as a proposal for the French mint in 1786 . The work became known because it was the first coin in the world to have an edge embossing . For this purpose, Droz not only minted the coin blank between two dies, as was customary up to then, but also clamped the blank in an edge shape ( ring embossing ). This made all coins the same height and diameter. The edge embossing increased the security against forgery, because it could be noticed immediately the filing of material on the squashed edge of the coin.
Droz offered the new minting technique, which he minted on his own construction, to the French royal mint, which, however, rejected the innovations. Instead, Droz's technique was adopted by Matthew Boulton for his Soho Mint .
The obverse of the coin shows a bust of Louis the Sixteenth , surrounded by the words “LUD XVI DG FR ET NAV REX”; the reverse shows three lilies enclosed by the crowned, floral ornamented monogram of Ludwig; the whole thing is surrounded by the writing “1786 SIT NOMEN DOMINI BENEDICTUR”. The coin has a diameter of 41 mm.
literature
- Jenny Uglow : The Lunar Men . 2nd Edition. Faber And Faber Ltd, London 2003, ISBN 0-571-21610-2 .