Louis XV (1715-1774). Gold 2 Louis d'or a la vieille tete, 1772-W (Lille). Older laureate head of king left. Rev. Crown over two oval shields of France and Navarre (Fr-466; Gadoury 347; KM 557.8). In NGC holder graded AU 58, a pleasing well struck example with considerable original mint luster. Rare. Value $7,500 - UP
The last portrait type introduced for the coinage of the long-reigning Louis XV was the so-called vielle tete ("old head") type, which replaced the portrait au bandeau in 1771. The new type has a Classical air to it, depicting Louis XV wearing a laurel wreath in order to cast him as a sort of latter-day Gallo-Roman Emperor. This Classical iconography was popular for European royal portraits of the eighteenth century, and was perhaps partly intended to reflect the learning deemed to be desirous in a monarch ruling in the Age of Enlightenment.