1/4 Teston - Immobilization in the name of Charles V

Besançon's practice of striking coins "immobilized" in the name of Charles V — decades after his 1558 abdication and 1558 death — was a deliberate political act, not an anachronism. As a Free Imperial City within the Holy Roman Empire, Besançon's minting rights were tied directly to imperial authority, and invoking Charles V's name and titles was a way of asserting those rights while sidestepping the perpetual jurisdictional friction with the Spanish Crown and the County of Burgundy that plagued the city throughout the seventeenth century.

By 1623–24, the practice was well-established enough to be essentially formulaic for the city's billon coinage.