Gold Ecu - John I

John I of Ligny struck this ecu during a decade when the County of Ligny was caught between competing pressures from the French crown and the broader instability of the Hundred Years' War. The ecu d'or as a type had been introduced by Philip VI of France in 1337, and regional lords across the Low Countries and northern France periodically issued close imitations — partly to facilitate local commerce, partly to assert jurisdictional independence from larger neighbors.

Poey d'Avant 6891 places this firmly within the feudal coinage of the Meuse region. Issues from minor lordships of this period survive in very small numbers; Ligny commanded neither the mint output nor the economic weight to produce in quantity.