Obol anonymous crescents

The viscounts of Châteaudun occupied an awkward political position in the late twelfth century, caught between the competing pressures of the Capetian crown and the Counts of Blois, to whom they were nominally subordinate. Small billon fractions like this obol were the working currency of local markets and toll-roads — the Loire valley was commercially active enough that even a half-denier denomination needed to exist in quantity. Dunois-area hoards from this period tend to produce these in clusters, suggesting they circulated intensively within a tight geographic radius rather than traveling far.