Stephen V ruled for just two years before dying at age 33, likely from illness contracted while fleeing his own son Ladislaus, with whom he had been in open conflict. His reign was too short and too fractured to produce coinage in any quantity, which accounts for the scarcity of surviving examples across all his denominations. This obol, the smallest fractional silver in circulation, would have changed hands thousands of times in a single market day — the attrition rate was brutal.
Stephen V ruled for just two years before dying at age 33, likely from illness contracted while fleeing his own son Ladislaus, with whom he had been in open conflict. His reign was too short and too fractured to produce coinage in any quantity, which accounts for the scarcity of surviving examples across all his denominations. This obol, the smallest fractional silver in circulation, would have changed hands thousands of times in a single market day — the attrition rate was brutal.