In the year 1640, the engraver Jean Varin was appointed chief of the Paris mint. Varin was a supporter of mechanical coinage, a very controversial technique in France. He put the hardly used screw press of the Paris mint back into operation, and additionally introduced a new technique. Geometrical patterns were imprinted on the rims of the coins, so that the coins' edges could no longer be trimmed. In the same year of 1640, a new gold coin was launched in France. It was called Louis d'or, after the image of the king on the coin's obverse. One Louis d'or weighed double as much as the traditional écu d'or that was still issued, and equaled 10 livres at 20 sols tournois each. The gold for the Louis d'or was melted out of old French and of foreign gold coins. And naturally, the Louis d'or as well as it's multiples and divisions, were minted mechanically.