Anglo-Gallic France — Henry VI Gold Salut d’Or Henry VI of England | King of France, 1422–1453 | Saint-Lô Mint | ND (1422–1453) | Fr-301 | 1 Salut d’Or | 26.5 mm | NGC MS 62 Few medieval coins capture the political reality of the Hundred Years’ War as directly as the gold Salut d’Or. This example was struck for Henry VI of England in his capacity as claimant and crowned King of France, at the Saint-Lô mint in Normandy. The type was modeled on the French gold Salut introduced under Charles VI and Charles VII, but Henry VI’s issues replaced the purely French royal imagery with a distinctly Anglo-French statement of sovereignty. The coin is particularly interesting because Henry VI was not merely claiming France from across the Channel—his government controlled substantial French territory and operated mints there in his name.

The obverse is one of the most recognizable designs of medieval French gold coinage: the Annunciation. The Virgin Mary and the Archangel Gabriel stand behind the quartered shields of France and England, while Gabriel presents Mary with a scroll bearing AVE, referring to the angel's greeting at the Annunciation. Above them appear the rays of divine light characteristic of the later issue. Surrounding the design is the royal legend HENRICVS DEI GRA FRACORV[M] Z AGLIE REX — “Henry, by the grace of God, King of the French and of England.” The wording is exceptionally important: this was not simply an English coin circulating in France. Its inscription explicitly proclaimed Henry as King of the French, reflecting the Lancastrian claim to the French crown.

The reverse carries an equally powerful medieval declaration: XPC VINCIT · XPC REGNAT · XPC IMPERAT — “Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands.” A Latin cross rises above the Gothic H, surrounded by a fleur-de-lis ornament, with a fleur-de-lis and leopard flanking the cross. The combination of Christian authority, French fleurs-de-lis, and the English leopard creates a remarkably concentrated piece of Lancastrian propaganda. Even the mintmark is significant: the lis identifies Saint-Lô. Medieval coinage was one of the most effective ways for a monarch to place his authority directly into commerce, and this coin effectively carried Henry's claim to France from hand to hand.

The historical circumstances surrounding the type make it especially compelling. The Treaty of Troyes of 1420 had recognized Henry V of England as heir to the French throne, disinheriting the Dauphin, the future Charles VII. Henry V died in 1422, followed only weeks later by Charles VI, leaving his infant son Henry VI as the Lancastrian claimant to both crowns. Henry was eventually crowned King of France at Notre-Dame de Paris on December 16, 1431, while Charles VII maintained the competing Valois claim. The conflict ultimately turned against the English: Charles VII's forces gradually recovered French territory, and by 1449 Saint-Lô had been recovered, ending its production of Henry VI's coinage; the last English-controlled mint in Normandy, Rouen, ceased striking for Henry VI later that year.

At NGC MS 62, this example retains the character expected from a fifteenth-century hammered gold coin while presenting the major design elements with considerable clarity. The broad flan allows the paired royal shields, Annunciation scene, cross, and surrounding Gothic legends to remain unusually legible. More than simply a medieval gold denomination, the Salut d'Or is a physical document of the moment when England and France were being contested as a single royal inheritance—a period when a young Lancastrian king could legitimately proclaim himself, in Latin on a gold coin struck in Normandy, “King of the French and of England.”