Grand Blanc - Francis I with annulets

The annulet-marked variant of Francis I's Grand Blanc sits in a transitional moment for French billon coinage — the king's monetary ordinances of the early sixteenth century repeatedly revised silver fineness downward as war expenditure, particularly the Italian campaigns, strained royal finances. The annulets themselves are privy marks used to distinguish issues by mint or emission period, and without a confirmed mint attribution on a given specimen, precise dating within the 1515–1540 window remains an exercise in die study rather than documentary record.

Dy royales 835A places this squarely within a small subseries; the Ciani gap is notable given that collection's otherwise thorough Francis I coverage.