Liard of Dauphine - Henry II

Henry II inherited Dauphine's coinage rights through the French crown's absorption of the province in 1349, but the liard denomination itself was a relatively recent invention — introduced under Louis XI in the 1450s as a low-value billon piece designed to displace the flood of foreign small change clogging French markets. By Henry II's reign, royal edicts were still fighting that same battle, with repeated ordinances attempting to regulate the chaotic circulation of counterfeit and debased petty coinage throughout the southeastern provinces.

The Dauphine issues are scarce relative to their Paris and Lyon counterparts, a function of the region's smaller mint output rather than any single political disruption.