page_title: Jean Castaing
section_title: Recoining and arrest
hierarchical_section_title: Jean Castaing / Recoining and arrest
caption_attribution_description: English: Double louis d'or aux huit L et insignes à l'effigie de Louis XIV, 1701. Le roi vieilli est néanmoins représenté avec toute la volonté d'un monarque énergique.
context_page_description: Jean Castaing was a French engineer and inventor of the Castaing machine, a device used to add edge lettering to coins. Though edge lettering had existed for over a century, the earliest methods were costly and time-consuming. In 1649, Peter Blondeau introduced a new method at the Royal Mint in England, which he kept secret. Later, in 1685, Castaing proposed that his machine be used in the mints of France. His proposal was approved, and Castaing later became general manager of all the mints in the nation.
  Castaing introduced other ideas, including the reforming and recoining of already existing French coins with edge lettering to reduce instances of counterfeiting and raise money for King Louis XIV's efforts in the Nine Years' War. During the carrying out of one such operation, Castaing was accused of malversation. His wife, Marie Hippolyte Castaing petitioned the court on his behalf, and he was freed two years later. He died at some point in the early eighteenth century.
context_section_description: In 1688, Castaing proposed a method of reshaping and restriking existing coins, both as a response to counterfeiting and to help the Louis XIV raise money to support the Nine Years' War. The French government approved Castaing's method, because it was considerably less costly than the alternative method of melting the coins before restriking them. A Paris tinsmith, Martin Masselin, was chosen to undertake the job of annealing, blanching, and edge-marking the recoined pieces; he was paid fourteen deniers for each coin, with an additional 17 deniers for each restruck within the first three months of his contract. In 17 months of his contract, a deficit of 150,000 livres was discovered at the Paris Mint, and Masselin was charged with stealing the pieces. He and his clerks in Paris and at the provincial mints were dismissed, and in 1691, Castaing was given general management of all twenty-six French mints and the task of restriking the old coinage. Castaing was paid eight deniers for each coin restruck, and when the King ordered a second reformation of the currency in 1693, Castaing's wage was reduced to three deniers per coin.
  On 21 March, 1700, Castaing was arrested on charges of malversation, including using inaccurate scales to weigh the coins prior to their being reminted and stealing. According to the numismatist George E. Ewing, Jr., Castaing's accuser, Jacques Fournier de Saint Andre, was engaged in a conspiracy along with two Paris Mint guard judges, men named Maigret and Burgoing, with the intent of having Castaing wrongly convicted. Ewing states that Fournier desired Castaing's position as general manager, and Maigret wanted to evict the inventor, to whom he was obliged to rent an apartment near the Mint for the mandated price of 450 livres annually, so he could raise the rent. Castaing's wife, Marie Hippolyte Castaing (née Bosch) was angered by the charges against her husband, petitioning Fournier to compensate them 10,000 livres for damages as well as offer an apology. She accused Fournier of being a "slanderer, impostor and an ignorant in money matters," and charged that he and the two guard judges had threatened to cause harm to Castaing due to his actions at the mints, which caused them to lose 30,000 livres following the King's 1693 decree. Two years after his arrest, the lawsuit against him was dropped by the Council of State, and Castaing was released. Fournier was ordered to pay him 6,000 livres in damages, as well as three-fourths of trial expenses. Castaing died at some point in the early eighteenth century.
caption: A 1701 gold Louis d'or, overstruck using Castaing's method. An older 1690s date is visible on the reverse
exif: {}