1/4 Groschen - Charles III 14th type

Charles III ruled Savoy for nearly half a century but spent much of that reign politically paralyzed — caught between the competing pressures of Francis I of France and the Habsburg Emperor Charles V, he lost control of most of his territory to French occupation by 1536 and never recovered it during his lifetime. Coinage continued to be struck in his name throughout this period, though effective ducal authority had largely collapsed. The billon quarter groschen served the small-change needs of a polity that existed more on paper than on the ground.