Despite the economic importance of the French West Indies, France began to produce coins for the islands only in 1731. The first issues were small silver coins of 12 and 6 sols; the obverse depicted a bust of King Louis XV (1715-1774), and the reverse bore the inscription ISLES DU VENT, Islands of the Wind. The colonial coins were minted in La Rochelle, the important seaport on the Atlantic, as the letter H beneath the king's bust indicates.