French States (Château-Renault): copper double-tournois of François de Bourbon, ca. 1603-1605

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I think you need to become a specialist to understand this coin type. My book - "Doubles et Deniers Tournois de Cuivre Royaux et Feodaux (1577-1684)" by Gerard Crepin, lists 18 types, for Chateau-Regnault and a page full of the spelling and punctuation varieties.
I would hazard a guess at type 18 for your coin. (see page scan)


I bought the book at a coin dealer in Rennes when I was cycling through.

 

Château-Renaud (or in the old French spelling, Château-Regnault) has a lot of history and a lot of numismatics for a small town - today less than 3000 people.

Louise-Marguerite de Lorraine-Guise, then aged 28, married the Prince de Conty, François de Bourbon-Condé, first cousin of King Henri IV who had favored this marriage to bring together the two houses of Bourbon and Lorraine. The Prince of Conty, Henri IV's companion in the Wars of Religion, was then old, widowed, deaf, stuttering to the point of being mute and, it was said at the time, impotent (lordmarcovan’s picture must be from earlier in his life). Louise-Marguerite's mother, Catherine de Clèves, gave her daughter as a dowry the sovereign principality of Château-Regnault et Linchamps..

The couple, François de Bourbon, prince de Conty and Louise-Marguerite then reigned jointly, from 1605 to 1614, over the principality where they never set foot. On January 13, 1610, the prince and princess of Conty granted the “general lease” of the principality of Château- Regnault and Linchamps to sieur Aymé Croys, lord of Turquan, residing in Provins in the Brie. This general lease included monetary provisions which authorized him to produce all kinds of pieces of gold, silver and others who will be "the best appreciated by merchants". The coinage was far in excess of local requirements and most ended up in France.

On December 5 1614, many foreign currencies were banned in the kingdom of France by Marie de Médicis. This ban included the Château-Regnault copper (although the high grade 1614 gold pistole and the florin of XXX sols were spared). However, Louise-Marguerite continued to strike copper double tournois in 1615, quickly replaced by others without a date. On December 19, 1616 the Cour des monnaies de Paris (Paris Court of Coinage) vigorously renewed the royal decree pronounced two years earlier. . On several occasions, between 1617 and 1625, the King of France or his Cours de monnaies in Paris had to issue bans of these double tournois without a date. They still bore the name and effigy of her husband, the deceased prince de Conty to foil legal action: how could one punish a dead man? This explains the large number of varieties of this coin listed by Crépin. The princess did stop striking silver ¼ ecus, imitations of the French ¼ ecu, in 1617.

Nevertheless after the ban Louise-Marguerite was forced to consider the production of coins other than those which had just been banned (such as @lordmarcovan's double tournois). Château-Regnault was located between France and the eastern edge of the Holy Roman Empire. Louise-Marguerite had the bright idea of replacing the banned copper double tournois and liards with imitations of coins of the Empire. The state's main source of income were tolls collected at Château-Regnault on the River Meuse as well as at Linchamps on the Semoy, part of the trade route from the Netherlands to Northern Italy. If the payment of tolls were made in pieces of gold, change could be given in below standard silver or billon coins.

In 1617 she granted a concession of her principality’s mint to a new moneyer, Paul Manlich or Manlick, a man of dubious reputation with a long record of counterfeiting. Under him large numbers of below standard billon imitations of coins of different states of the Empire were produced, called, dreibätzners (3 Batzen), pieces of 4 sols, 12 kreutzers and 3 kreutzers. They were not exact forgeries of any state's coins but imitations, usually with a fantasy mixture of arms (some from Louise-Marguerite's own Lorraine family arms but others copied from various states' coins). The reverse always has the Imperial double eagle. The semi-literate boatmen were accustomed to dealing with coins from many parts of the Empire, supposedly all struck to the Imperial standard of weight and fineness. The coins they received in Château-Regnault seemed good enough to them.

Here are three examples.

This first one actually bears Louise-Marguerite's name:

3 Kreuzer n.d (1617-22)
Obv.;leaf LVDOVICA. MARGARETA. LOT Star over qtrd. arms of Julich ( lion rampant l.) in 1st & 4th qtrs, Jerusalem (cross with small crosses in angles) & ancient Hungary (horizontal bars) in irregular shield, in circle
Rev,.:SUB.UMBRA. ALARUM.TUARUM (under the shade of your wings) Crown in legend over double eagle with 3 (value) in orb on breast, in circle
28.5 mm 4.19 g



The second one does not beat the princess' name but does state it is a coin of CHAST (= Château-Regnault)
12 Kreuzer 1617
Obv.:MONETA_NOVA_ ARG. CH_AST.1617 Crowned qtrd. arms of Julich (lion) & Jerusalem (Maltese cross) qtrd., Aragon in 2nd & 3rd qtrs. (vertical bars) and ancient Hungary (horizontal bars) & Julich (lion) qtrd. in 4th qtr., in circle, over diagonal Burgundy cross extending into legend
Rev.:crown SUB* UMBRA* .ALARUM* TUARUM (under the shade of your wings) Double eagle with 12 (value) in orb on breast, in circle
28 mm 3.57 g






The third is an Imitation of a schilling of Anton Günther of Oldenburg (struck 1614-67), without any reference to Louise-Marguerite or Château-Regnault. Unfortunately my pictures have too many MB to be uploaded.

4 sols n.d. (c.1619)
MO NOVA_ARG_ORDINE: (O.L . illegible) B.R Crowned qtrd. variation of Oldenburg arms (horizontal bars of Oldenburg/ French lis instead of Delmenhorst cross & Jever lion rampant l.) over Burgundy cross, breaking out of circle
Rev.:NISI.TV DOMINE NOBISCVM.EPVS (error for FRVS: if thou art not with us, Lord, all is in vain) Crown in legend over double eagle in circle
29 mm 4.20 g

Of course, some people soon spotted the dubious nature of these coins. Certain cities banned them: for example, Frankfurt in 1618 and Strasbourg in 1619. For the princess and Manlich, the massive production of these coins was extremely lucrative but after the decrees banning them, they were obliged to give up production in 1619-1620

For more information, see CHARLET, CGB Bulletin Numismatique 185, April 2019

 

Enjoyed the video of your trip. Beautiful country ! And it never seemed to have rained !

To finish the story of Château-Renaud:
Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIII’s powerful and capable minister, wanted to get rid of the small independent territories on France’s frontiers and reinforce royal power with the control of a frontier on the river Meuse. He started negotiations with Louise-Marguerite in 1625 and the princess finally sold Château-Renaud to the King on March 10 1629 in return for the territory of Pont-sur-Seine inside the French kingdom, some German territories and over 1,400,000 livres in cash. So she did pretty well but that was the end of Château-Renaud coinage.