Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 1156. Estimate $400.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $475. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

FRANCE. Royal. Louis XVI. 1774-1792. Æ Double sol constitutionel (24.16 g, 6h). Paris mint, Alexander Louis Roettiers de Montaleau. Dated L'an 4 de la Liberté and 1792. Bare-headed and draped bust left; lion passant below / Fasces surmounted by Liberty cap, 2 S across field; all within wreath; date in exergue. Duplessy 1722; Ciani 2249; KM 603.1. EF, trace of underlying luster. Attractive last year as king. ($400)

Apparently a mule, since this mintmaster employed a cornucopiae as the privy mark for years 4 and 5.

In 1792 the early reverses of the French army in the war with Austria and Prussia and threat of the Duke of Brunswick to destroy Paris if the royal family were harmed infuriated the Paris sans-culottes. The king and his family were imprisoned on August 10 in the Temple, and in September, as the Prussians were defeated at Valmy, the Convention declared a Republic. Incriminating evidence against Louis was later found, and he was tried and found guilty by a unanimous vote. He was guillotined on 21 January 1793. Although the king's portrait is known on issues dated 1793, his rule ended with his imprisonment in 1792.