Theobald I — called "the Cheat" by contemporaries, a nickname earned through his serial betrayals of both the French crown and his own vassals — controlled one of the most commercially active territories in medieval Europe. The Troyes mint served the fairs of Champagne, which by this period were already developing into the dominant clearing house for long-distance trade across the Latin West. That a coin of this weight survived at all is partly a function of how rarely these thin billon pieces escaped heavy circulation.
Theobald I — called "the Cheat" by contemporaries, a nickname earned through his serial betrayals of both the French crown and his own vassals — controlled one of the most commercially active territories in medieval Europe. The Troyes mint served the fairs of Champagne, which by this period were already developing into the dominant clearing house for long-distance trade across the Latin West. That a coin of this weight survived at all is partly a function of how rarely these thin billon pieces escaped heavy circulation.