Louis XIII Royal Jeton 1641 Silver Order of the Holy Spirit Very Rare

  
ROYAL TOKEN - ORDER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 1641. Silver, 27 mm - 5.72 g.

(Louis XIII, King of the Franks and Navarre). Joined shields of France and Navarre beneath a crown, with King Louis XIII’s initial “L” between three small crowns, placed below the shields, as well as in the second collar of the king’s orders. The whole is surrounded by the collars of the king’s two orders, that of Saint Michael and that of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove descending from the sky amid flames filling the field.

This example comes from the La Parpaïolle online numismatic shop in 2006. Original piece with regular wear, and it is in fact more attractive in hand than in my photos (though I could not take better ones). This token was struck identically (except for the date) twice under Louis XIII: in 1633, F. The 1641 issue is very rare and, to my knowledge, has appeared for sale only three times in the last 25 years, in this silver version. This is the present example, which was offered for sale in 2006 on the La Parpaïolle online shop. Note that the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France only holds the well-known token struck in 1633, on the occasion of a huge promotion of about one hundred new knights who were invested in the Order of the Holy Spirit in 1633 (BnF, Thierry Sarmant no. 102): the much rarer 1641 piece is therefore missing from the BnF collection. I am selling part of my collection: please take a look at my other items!