Gold Écu - Philip the Bold

Philip the Bold acquired Flanders through his marriage to Margaret III in 1369, but it was only upon her death in 1384 that he actually exercised authority over the county's mints. This écu belongs to that narrow two-year window before his monetary reforms consolidated Flemish and Burgundian coinage policy — a period when the Ghent and Bruges mints operated under transitional authority, still adjusting to Valois overlordship after decades of near-autonomous municipal control.