Obol - Charles of Anjou

Charles of Anjou acquired the County of Tonnerre through his wife Beatrice of Burgundy, and the county's coinage reflects the friction between Capetian ambition and local feudal minting rights that defined much of thirteenth-century French monetary history. This obol, the half-denier fraction, circulated during a period when Charles was simultaneously managing the Kingdom of Sicily, the Latin Empire ambitions, and a web of northern French lordships — Tonnerre being among the more peripheral of his concerns.

PA#5860 is scarce in any grade. The billon content is low enough that surviving examples frequently show heavy corrosion from burial.