Obol - Andrew II

Andrew II's reign was defined less by monetary policy than by the chronic fiscal pressure of crusading ambitions and baronial revolt. The Golden Bull of 1222 — Hungary's rough equivalent of Magna Carta, wrested from Andrew by his own nobility — emerged directly from a reign in which royal revenues had been so thoroughly alienated to favorites and creditors that the crown could barely function. Small silver fractions like this obol circulated in an economy the king had repeatedly destabilized through grants of royal income to foreign courtiers and military adventurers.