Blanc 'Guénar' - Charles VI

The Blanc Guénar takes its name from the colloquial French term for a dog — a reference to the heraldic creature on the reverse that contemporaries apparently found more memorable than the coin's official denomination. Charles VI authorized this issue in 1385, but the type ran through one of the most catastrophic reigns in French history: the king suffered his first psychotic episode in 1392, believing himself made of glass, and was intermittently incapacitated for the remaining three decades of his rule. Monetary policy during these years lurched between debasement and revaluation as competing factions — Burgundians and Armagnacs — effectively controlled the mint at different intervals.

The billon content varies meaningfully across the issue's long run, reflecting successive royal ordinances adjusting the fineness downward under fiscal pressure from the Hundred Years' War.