Owner Comments:
Purchased on 7/3/2011 from a seller in Greece.
This is a pattern strike "ESSAI" coin with a mintage of only 500 pieces. Very rare and a strikingly beautiful piece.
The coin features the image of a rider on horseback, wielding a sword overhead and bearing the motto "Deo Juvante". This translates as "With God's help", and is the motto of the principality of Monaco. Monaco's name comes from the 6th century BC nearby Phocaean Greek colony. Referred to the Ligurians as Monoikos, or "single house", which come from the fact that people either settled in a "single habitation" or of "living apart" from others. According to an ancient myth, Hercules passed through the Monaco area and turned away the previous gods. As a result, a temple was constructed there, the temple of Hercules Monoikos. Because the only temple of this area was the "House" of Hercules, the city was called Monoikos.
Following a land grant from Emperor Henry VI in 1191, Monaco was re-founded in 1215 as a colony of Genoa. Monaco was first ruled by a member of the House of Grimaldi in 1297, when Francesco Grimaldi ("Il Malizia", translated from Italian either as "The Malicious One" or "The Cunning One") and his men captured the fortress protecting the Rock of Monaco while he was dressed as a Franciscan monk – a Monaco in Italian, although this is a coincidence as the area was already known by this name. The shield which the rider on horseback carries is that of the crest of the family of the House of Grimaldi, which is also seen in the Coat of Arms of Monaco in its colors of white and red.