Gros Blanc - Louis II of Vaud

Louis II ruled Vaud from 1302 until his death in 1349, the same year the Black Death swept through the region with devastating force. His coinage was issued under baronial rather than episcopal or royal authority — Vaud maintained its independence between the competing pressures of Savoy and the nascent Swiss Confederation until Louis's successor eventually ceded the territory to Savoy in 1359. The gros blanc type reflects deliberate imitation of French royal gros coinage, a calculated gesture toward monetary credibility in a region with no mint tradition of its own.