Obol - John I

John I of Brittany — known as "the Red" — ruled through a period of sustained tension between the duchy's quasi-independent nobility and the expanding authority of the French crown. His 1297 posthumous canonization as a saint, promoted by his son, was partly political theater designed to elevate Breton dynastic prestige. The billon obol, struck throughout his nearly fifty-year reign, represents the smallest denomination in his monetary output — a workhorse of local market exchange rather than of ducal ceremony.