Marseille maintained a striking degree of monetary autonomy throughout this period, operating its mint under communal authority even as the County of Provence changed hands between the houses of Barcelona and Anjou. The city's consular government, established in the twelfth century, negotiated and jealously guarded coinage rights that most comparable Mediterranean towns never secured independently.
The span covered by this type — nearly six decades — produced considerable die variation, accounting for the separate Rolland references assigned to what is essentially a single anonymous type.
Marseille maintained a striking degree of monetary autonomy throughout this period, operating its mint under communal authority even as the County of Provence changed hands between the houses of Barcelona and Anjou. The city's consular government, established in the twelfth century, negotiated and jealously guarded coinage rights that most comparable Mediterranean towns never secured independently.
The span covered by this type — nearly six decades — produced considerable die variation, accounting for the separate Rolland references assigned to what is essentially a single anonymous type.