Denier Tournois - Henri III Dauphiné, Z on reverse

Henri III's Dauphiné deniers tournois represent the Crown's persistent effort to extend royal copper coinage into a province that had long operated with considerable fiscal autonomy. The Grenoble mint — the relevant facility for Dauphiné issues of this period — used the Z mintmark to distinguish its output, a convention maintained across multiple denominations during Henri's reign.

Henri III faced chronic liquidity problems throughout the late 1570s, partly a consequence of expenditure during the Wars of Religion, and small copper denominations like this one were critical for local market transactions that silver couldn't efficiently serve.