Catalog
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| Issuer | Bishopric of Metz (French States) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1551-1555 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 0.41 g |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The arms of Robert de Lenoncourt displayed at center, set within a cross whose limbs extend to the periphery and interrupt the surrounding circular legend. The cantons formed by the cross frame the heraldic shield, a composition characteristic of ecclesiastical coinage from the Lorraine region during the mid-sixteenth century. The legend R CD LENONCOVRT identifies the issuing bishop, Robert de Lenoncourt, who held the see of Metz from 1551 to 1555. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Robert de Lenoncourt held the bishopric of Metz from 1550 until his death in 1561, exercising temporal coinage rights that the bishops of Metz had maintained since the medieval period — even as the city itself had functionally operated as a free imperial city for centuries. The bugne was a local petty denomination specific to the Metz monetary tradition, and the half-bugne sits at the extreme low end of its already modest value hierarchy. Lenoncourt's episcopate coincided almost exactly with the French seizure of Metz in 1552, when Henri II occupied the Three Bishoprics; how that political disruption affected the mint's continuity of operation remains imperfectly documented.