FRANCE / CAPETIANS - FRANCE / ROYAL François I (1515-1547). Écu d'or au soleil du Dauphiné, 2nd type, 3rd issue ND (22 March 1527- 18 March 1528), Grenoble. Av. + FRANCISCVS° DEI° GRA° FRACORVM° REX (workshop) (different). Field quartered France-Dauphiné; above, a sun. Rv. (workshop) XPS° VINCIT° XPS° RENAT° XPS° INPERAT°. Cross flory with quatrefoil in heart, cantoned by two crowned F at 1 and 4. Dy.- (would be 783A) - G.- (new 324A) - Fr.355 - Kind/BnF 1149 ; Gold - 3,36 g - 26,5 mm - 2 h Top Pop: the only graded specimen of this variety! PCGS MS63 (54809663). With the different N of the master Étienne Nachon, rarer than the usual E. Second known specimen of this variety with a small cross on the dolphin of the 2nd canton (as on Dy.786A) which will be indicated in the next edition of Gadoury, after the specimen of the BnF. Beautifully fresh with a light golden patina. Superb at Fleur de coin. This type was struck in Grenoble by Étienne Nachon between 7 February 1522 and 18 March 1528 (E, then N, or no different). Some of these gold shields show an initial cross cleche, specific to this workshop, and three combinations can be seen in the initial symbols of the legends: cross-cross / cross-pink / rose-cross. Nachon was master of the Grenoble workshop from 1522 to 1530. In March 1527, he was officially continued in his office by the Chambre des Comptes du Dauphiné and chose the letter N as his new identifier. On 19 March 1527, Jean Farbot, cutter of the Grenoble mint, presented five stacks of testons and five stacks of douzains to the Chamber of Accounts bearing this new difference of the letter N. Then, on 22 March, he presented two stacks and two trousseaux of ecus under the sun. Our shields with this small cross were therefore struck between 22 March 1527 and 18 March 1528, the date of the last issue (before changing to another type following an injunction on 2 May 1528: the one with a crowned F and a dolphin on the reverse). The small cross is a control mark for the production of Étienne Nachon. An identical example can be found in the Cabinet des Médailles at the BnF in Paris [Information provided by Jean-Yves Kind, Histoire numismatique de François Ier, forthcoming].