Dinar Stefan Uroš V helmet and double cross

Stefan Uroš V inherited the vast Serbian Empire built by his father Dušan the Mighty, but proved unable to hold it together. Regional lords progressively detached their territories throughout his reign, and by the time of his death in 1371 — without an heir, following the catastrophic Ottoman defeat of the Serbs at the Maritsa River — the empire had effectively ceased to exist. He was the last ruler of the Nemanjić dynasty, a line that had governed Serbia continuously since the late twelfth century.

The extinction of the dynasty triggered an immediate fragmentation into competing principalities, making coins attributable specifically to Uroš V's own authority increasingly difficult to assign with certainty against those of his powerful nobles.