Carolus 4th type with CAROLVS QVINTVS

Besançon occupied a uniquely stubborn constitutional position — nominally within the Burgundian inheritance of the Habsburgs yet fiercely protective of its free city status, which it defended through centuries of legal wrangling with both Spain and the Empire. Striking coins in the name of Charles V decades after his 1558 abdication and death was a deliberate political act: by invoking his authority rather than Philip II's or later Philip III's, the city asserted its imperial — not Spanish — allegiance.

The Carolus series ran across multiple types well into the seventeenth century, this fourth type spanning over two decades of production. Billon this debased was essentially fiduciary coinage operating on local trust rather than intrinsic value.