Obol - Andrew II

Andrew II's reign was defined less by monetary policy than by the chronic financial desperation that followed his disastrous Fifth Crusade campaign and the ruinous land grants of the so-called "Golden Bull" period — by 1222 the nobility had forced from him a charter limiting royal authority precisely because he had spent the treasury into collapse. Small silver fractions like this obol were debased progressively across his reign as the crown leased minting rights to private contractors, a practice Andrew relied on heavily to generate short-term revenue at the cost of coinage integrity.