Metz maintained an unusual degree of monetary autonomy within the Holy Roman Empire throughout the fifteenth century, issuing its own billon fractional coinage well into a period when many comparable Free Cities had ceded minting rights or adopted regional standards. The bugne — a denomination peculiar to the Metz system — circulated alongside episcopal issues from the same city, creating a dual-authority monetary environment that confused contemporaries and continues to complicate attribution today.
Flon's corpus remains the essential reference, with this type catalogued under a sequence reflecting production across more than a century of essentially unchanged municipal policy.
Metz maintained an unusual degree of monetary autonomy within the Holy Roman Empire throughout the fifteenth century, issuing its own billon fractional coinage well into a period when many comparable Free Cities had ceded minting rights or adopted regional standards. The bugne — a denomination peculiar to the Metz system — circulated alongside episcopal issues from the same city, creating a dual-authority monetary environment that confused contemporaries and continues to complicate attribution today.
Flon's corpus remains the essential reference, with this type catalogued under a sequence reflecting production across more than a century of essentially unchanged municipal policy.