Coin extremely rare with horned head. Rarity R5 in the Gadoury book.

The scandal of the Louis d’or with a ‘horn’ from the Strasbourg mint broke out shortly after its discovery. This famous type has a curved bulge on the forehead, which was immediately understood as a horn and thus as an allusion to the fact that the king was unable to secure his succession and was betrayed by the queen. Comparisons can inevitably made to prints of the period depicting Louis with the horns of a cuckold. Even if some numismatists only classify the ‘horn’ as a random die break or error, the prevailing opinion is that it was an intended change. After the so-called ‘Affair of the Diamond Necklace’ at the court of King Louis in 1785 in which the queen was involved, the monarchy was further discredited by the appearance of these coins. Most of the pieces that were produced at the time were apparently melted down in a timely manner, but a few evidently survived.