Gold Florin - Joanna I and Louis I

Joanna I's grip on Provence was never secure. Accused of complicity in the murder of her first husband Andrew of Hungary in 1345, she sold Avignon to Pope Clement VI in 1348 partly to fund her legal defense before the Papal Curia. The co-regency with Louis I of Anjou, her adopted heir, produced this florin type during a period when her authority was perpetually contested — by Naples, by Hungary, and by her own nobles.

The florin standard followed the Florentine model that had dominated Mediterranean trade since the mid-13th century, a monetary convention Provence had little choice but to adopt given its position between Italian banking networks and the French crown.