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Double Pistole - Immobilization in the name of Charles V
| Issuer | Besançon, Free imperial city of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1625-1652 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 6.53 g |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Displayed imperial double-headed eagle with a shield bearing the arms of the city of Besançon on its breast, set within a beaded inner circle. The eagle's wings are spread and its heads crowned, serving as the dynastic emblem of the Holy Roman Empire. The surrounding Latin legend encircles the device and concludes with the date of issue at the end of the inscription, separating the regnal type from the civic monetary authority. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Besançon's mint exploited a legal fiction that persisted for over a century: by "immobilizing" the effigy and titulature of Charles V — dead since 1558 — the city's coins technically bore the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor without requiring fresh imperial approval for each new issue. This allowed the Free Imperial City to continue striking gold coinage well into the Thirty Years' War under a face that had been in the grave for generations.
The practice was not unique to Besançon but was carried further here than almost anywhere else in the Empire. The 1625–1652 window covers the worst decades of that war, during which Franche-Comté became a contested buffer between French ambition and Habsburg authority — a tension that would end with Louis XIV's final annexation in 1678.