1/2 Groschen - Nicolas Vaudémont, Regent

Nicolas de Vaudémont governed Lorraine as regent for his nephew Charles III, who inherited the duchy at age two in 1545 following the death of Francis I of Lorraine. The regency stretched through a period of acute French pressure on the duchy's eastern borders — Henri II seized the Three Bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun in 1552, the same year this issue begins, permanently altering the political geography around Lorraine without formally absorbing the duchy itself.

Billon coinage of this period was chronically debased across the region, and Lorraine was no exception.