Maille Blanche - PHILIPPE IV LE BEL

Philippe IV's aggressive war financing — particularly the ruinous campaigns against Flanders after 1297 — drove repeated debasements of the French coinage, making a billon-free silver issue like this one a relative rarity within his own monetary program. The maille blanche sits at the cleaner end of a reign otherwise notorious for currency manipulation, including the wholesale expulsion of Jewish and Templar creditors when debasement alone proved insufficient to close the fiscal gap.