Geneva struck billon small change through the 1590s under constant fiscal strain — the city had spent much of the previous decade absorbing Huguenot refugees fleeing France after the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre and its aftermath, straining municipal resources severely. The 9 deniers denomination, equivalent to three quarts, was the workhorse of daily Geneva commerce at a moment when the city-republic was simultaneously managing refugee economics and shoring up its Reformed ecclesiastical identity against Savoyard pressure.
HMZ 1#2-304 places this squarely among Geneva's autonomous civic issues before the city's monetary arrangements were gradually absorbed into broader Swiss frameworks in the following century.
Geneva struck billon small change through the 1590s under constant fiscal strain — the city had spent much of the previous decade absorbing Huguenot refugees fleeing France after the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre and its aftermath, straining municipal resources severely. The 9 deniers denomination, equivalent to three quarts, was the workhorse of daily Geneva commerce at a moment when the city-republic was simultaneously managing refugee economics and shoring up its Reformed ecclesiastical identity against Savoyard pressure.
HMZ 1#2-304 places this squarely among Geneva's autonomous civic issues before the city's monetary arrangements were gradually absorbed into broader Swiss frameworks in the following century.