elf France Kingdom USA Ecu 1774 A Louis XV Paris Mint Posthumous Issue

Description

KM 563, one year type, minted in Paris after the death of King Louis XV.  Large silver crown (41mm), with King Louis XV on the obverse, and raised lettering on the edge.
Louis XV (known as Louis the Beloved) became king at age 5, at the death of his great-grandfather Louis XIV.  Until he reached majority at age 13 (1723), Philippe II, Duke of Orleans, ruled as regent.  Louis XV died on May 1, 1774.
The mintmark is weak, but the privy marks confirm that this is a Paris Mint coin.
Walter Breen only acknowledged the dates and mintmarks of ecus found in the wreckage of Le Chameaux as being officially exported to French Canada, but other ecus could have been unofficially imported into French Canada, or into New Orleans from the Caribbean.
When the French began supporting the rebels in the American Revolution, the ecu assumed a higher status in the colonial economy.  If you read Washington's documentation of his expenses during the war, he inventories his war chest, and specifically documents how many ecus he had in it.
As documented in "America's Foreign Coins" by Schilke and Solomon (1964), the ecu was the largest silver coin, foreign or domestic, to circulate as legal tender in the United States, and it was rated at .10.  It did not lose its legal tender status until 1827.
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t22/ec74