Double Denier - Boniface VIII

Comtat Venaissin was a papal enclave in Provence — not part of France, not part of the Holy Roman Empire — ceded to the papacy by Philip III in 1274 following the Albigensian Crusade settlement. Boniface VIII, elected in 1294 after the spectacular abdication of Celestine V, wasted little time establishing administrative and monetary control over the territory. This issue dates entirely within his pontificate, which ended with his arrest at Anagni in 1303 by agents of Philip IV — an event that effectively broke him; he died within weeks.