 1658-A Billon douzain. Breen 273, Gadoury 86, not in Hodder or Vlack. About Uncirculated. 28.6 gns. (i.e., the weight of a douzain). 21.5 mm. (i.e., the diameter of a demi-douzain). Attractive, light gray and gold in color on both sides. Very sharply struck and about perfectly centered. Mr. Ford wondered, given the anomalous weight of the piece, whether this might not have been a pattern or presentation strike. Clearly, a chimerical piece. Mr. Ford accepted this as a French colonial coin. These were authorized as 12 deniers tournois pieces in July, 1598, raised to 15 deniers in November. Clearly overrated, a law of 1665 forbade anyone tendering more than 20 sols of these for any single payment and they were reduced back to 12 deniers in 1679.
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