Obol - Andrew II

Andrew II's reign was defined less by monetary policy than by the catastrophic giveaways of royal estates and revenues to his barons — a hemorrhaging of Crown assets so severe it forced the issuing of the Golden Bull of 1222, Hungary's rough equivalent of Magna Carta, which stripped the king of powers he had already effectively lost. That fiscal disorder makes even minor silver issues from this period historically loaded. The extreme lightness of this denomination reflects chronic silver shortages that plagued the Hungarian treasury throughout Andrew's campaigns, including his expensive and largely fruitless participation in the Fifth Crusade of 1217–1221.