Maille - Moneyer Arnot Aalst

Arnot of Aalst operated during a period when minting rights in Flanders were held by a fragmented network of licensed moneyers rather than centralized under the count alone. The maille — the smallest fractional denomination in the Flemish system — was the everyday transaction coin of markets, tolls, and petty exchange, and the moneyer's name on the issue reflects a contractual accountability that the counts of Flanders enforced to control debasement. Baldwin IX, who held Flanders through much of this window before departing on the Fourth Crusade in 1202, inherited a monetary system already strained by competing urban commercial demands.