France, Royal Administration, c. 1434 (?), by J. Blancpain, field of France ancient, vive le roi vive le roi viv, rev. long cross pattée, lis in centre, stalked trefoils in angles, vive blan pain vive, 4.80g/5h (Barnard –, but cf. pp.50-1; cf. Feuardent 14810-13; cf. Mitchiner 520, same rev. die). Sometime polished, nearly very fine, very rare, the obverse type unpublished in the standard references £100-150

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Collection of Jetons formed by the late George Berry.

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Feuardent states that Jean Blancpain (fl. 1420-55) was a moneyer for Charles VI. By 1425 he was working in the Anglo-Gallic mint at Arras before moving to Paris the following year. In 1434 he found himself in trouble with the English authorities in Paris for fabricating unauthorised jetons. Barnard muses that the offence may have been putting his name to the issue, rather than the jetons themselves. Whether the expressly French design of the current specimen is likely to have been produced under Henry VI would seem to be open to speculation. In 1454 Blancpain is recorded as a die cutter at Philippe le Bon’s mint at Valenciennes, presumably involved in the manufacture of the gold lions and their fractions issued at that time