1776 Louis XVI, Écu Pau in Béarn or Metz

I have a 1776 and the seller says this image on the reverse is a cow. I bought it in celebration of our American Revolution and posted it on a reddit coin group for alternative interpretation and a user thought it was a ram. Below is the same coin for 1785 with the cow and I think it looks different from the 1776 below. The coat of arms is the same, although welcome any input. 

Why? A ram (1776) suggests the mint was in the city of Metz. A cow suggests the city of Pau, region of Béarn. On the obverse, under Louis XVI, is the symbol of a flower ?tulip? which is associated with Charles Augustin Pantaléon, Master Engraver, at Metz (1743-1794).

So here is the obverse, 1785 cow and my coin 1776. Anyone have an opinion on mint location? 

Ecu de Béarn dit "à la vieille tête" - Louis XV - France – Numista

Interestingly the cow on this coin looks the same as yours obviously NOT your coin, it also has the tulip and says Pau as the mint.

Am sure somebody will be along to assist with expert knowledge but I just noted the bovine similarity and thought I would point it out.

Hi there,

for Metz only seen AA as mint mark.

here 1 from Pau similar to yours .

https://www.cgbfr.com/louis-xvi-ecu-aux-branches-dolivier-1776-pau-ttb,bry_712383,a.html

Thanks for the reference sample, I agree those are the same. But no, the image on my coin has more pointed ears and tail is positioned differently. I did see the AA for Metz which I don't have. There is no category for Pau here on numista. Appreciate the dialog here!

You can ask to create 1 line to add Pau or create a new separate list under 1 Ecu Bearn “like louis XV”.

Which ever is the best 

I did not checked if we had some political/ geographical changes between LouisXV and XVI 

Try to get in touch with the Ref.

If you want more views/ expertise, on French coins,  switch to Numista “French language “ forums are separated and not all the French are looking the English forums.

remove Metz from the title not relevant.

BR

Hello — 

There are two major types for the 18th-century French silver royal issues: the “regular” écu and its subdivisions, and the écu de Béarn. The main difference lies in the obverse legend where REX is used for the first and RE + a BD monogram for the écu de Béarn.

Yours is the Louis XVI écu de Béarn and by definition it has a cow on the reverse. Compare with the standard type used everywhere else.

As for the engraver's différent, I'm not sure why it's different (!) from the one in the catalogue. My 1780 écu de Béarn has the same différent as in the catalogue.

EDIT — I see that the animal looks more like a ram but it's described as a cow on the CGB example linked by Renilo39. It looks like this is an earlier style of the cow; I see the same “ram-looking” cow on other coins of this period on eBay.

EDIT 2 — According to the Krause World Coins 1701-1800, the “tulip flanked by 2 pellets” is the mark of Pierre-Pascal d’Arripe de Sadiras, 1745-1789.

Most helpful, thanks for the information on the “cow” as this was the most confounding thing in my exploration of the topic and the “BD” was never articulated anywhere so makes since. The engraver mark on the obverse wasn't matching up. I love old European coins and don't feel confident making proposed changes here because of my inexperience. So grateful that I won this coin in auction.

I tried the French forum - good suggestion. My only complaint is the Google translate “page” is a bit confusing - to English  anyway, I see there is a translate tool in the ribbon for postings. I'll experiment a bit. It was really important to me to identify correctly, in the states we don't have so many engravers & mint locations in early coins … didn't realize the French were so specific (comment meant to be in praise) !!  

Camerinvs

 

 

Yours is the Louis XVI écu de Béarn and by definition it has a cow on the reverse. .

 

EDIT — I see that the animal looks more like a ram but it's described as a cow on the CGB example linked by Renilo39. It looks like this is an earlier style of the cow; I see the same “ram-looking” cow on other coins of this period on eBay.

 

 

there’s 2 variants of the cow. If you go to the link and change language to French it will appear in the comments. See screenshot below. 
 

comments, contents in a coin page is not always the same. It will depends language used by the contributors, you’ll have more or less info… strange enough for French coins sometimes I found more details in the English pages.