Blanc - Charles V

Charles V never fought a battle in person — a physical weakness that defined his entire reign — yet he rebuilt French royal finances from near-collapse following the catastrophic ransoms and territorial concessions of the Treaty of Brétigny. The blanc was central to that recovery, issued as part of a systematic monetary stabilization after decades of debasement under Jean II, whose desperation to fund the Hundred Years War had rendered French billon coinage almost worthless in trade.

The alloy was carefully regulated under Charles's reformist monetary ordinances, a deliberate contrast to his father's chronic debasements.