Amadeus VIII came to power as Count of Savoy in 1391 at age eight, governed initially under regency, and spent the following decades consolidating Savoyard territory into one of the more coherent Alpine principalities of the late medieval period. His monetary policy reflected that ambition — a deliberate effort to produce coinage that could function credibly across the passes linking France and the Italian states. In 1416, the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund elevated Savoy to a duchy, rendering this groschen type obsolete almost immediately as a new ducal coinage was required.
Amadeus VIII came to power as Count of Savoy in 1391 at age eight, governed initially under regency, and spent the following decades consolidating Savoyard territory into one of the more coherent Alpine principalities of the late medieval period. His monetary policy reflected that ambition — a deliberate effort to produce coinage that could function credibly across the passes linking France and the Italian states. In 1416, the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund elevated Savoy to a duchy, rendering this groschen type obsolete almost immediately as a new ducal coinage was required.