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1/4 Denier 'Angevine' - Rudolph of Coucy
| Issuer | Bishopric of Metz |
|---|---|
| Year | 1388-1415 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Within a beaded inner circle, a Gothic capital letter M surmounted by a tilde, rendered in relief in the Angevine style. The central device is set within a plain field bounded by the inner beaded border. The surrounding legend, separated by annulets, reads the bishop's title and name in abbreviated Gothic Latin characters. The overall style is characteristic of late medieval ecclesiastical coinage of the Lorraine region. |
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| Obverse lettering | ✠ RAD` ⊚ DE ⊚ COVCI ⊚ EPS` (Translation: Bishop Rudolph of Coucy.) |
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| Additional information |
Rudolph of Coucy held the see of Metz from 1388 until his death in 1415, a tenure spanning the most fractious decades of the Hundred Years' War and the Western Schism — a period when ecclesiastical authority in Lorraine was contested on multiple fronts simultaneously. The Bishopric of Metz retained the right to strike its own coinage long after comparable ecclesiastical mints in France had ceded that privilege to the crown, making these issues a direct assertion of episcopal independence at a moment when it was anything but guaranteed.
The 'Angevine' denomination type takes its name from Angevin monetary traditions that filtered into Lorraine through long commercial contact. At 0.4 g in billon, these circulated at the lowest practical level of daily exchange.