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1/2 Groschen - Gregory XIII Charles de Bourbon legate, Georges d`Armagnac co-legate
| Issuer | Comtat Venaissin (Papal States) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1572-1585 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Facing enthroned figure of Pope Gregory XIII in pontifical vestments, depicted in a frontal hieratic pose raising his right hand in benediction and holding a long patriarchal double cross in his left hand. The papal effigy is rendered in a stylized medieval manner typical of hammered billon coinage of the Comtat Venaissin. A circular Latin legend surrounds the central device, identifying the pontiff. The coin's irregular flan and worn fields are characteristic of the period's provincial mint output. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The Comtat Venaissin was a papal enclave entirely surrounded by French territory — not part of France, but governed from Rome through a series of appointed legates. Charles de Bourbon served as legate while simultaneously holding the archbishopric of Rouen, an arrangement that placed enormous secular and ecclesiastical power in a single French cardinal's hands during some of the most violent decades of the Wars of Religion. Georges d'Armagnac, his co-legate, died in 1585, which effectively brackets the issue's terminus.
Billon coinage from Avignon and the Comtat ran on a separate monetary track from the French royal system throughout this period.