Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Obole
| Issuer | Bishopric of Geneva |
|---|---|
| Year | 1301-1400 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | HMZ 1#1-296b |
| Obverse description | Cross pattée with globules at the terminals, set within a beaded inner circle, surrounded by a rope-like border with stylised fleurs or ornaments between the arms in the outer field. The legend is distributed around the periphery in Latin characters. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Stylised bust of Saint Peter facing right, depicted in a schematic medieval manner within a beaded inner circle, the figure rendered in low relief characteristic of 14th-century Genevan hammered coinage. A rope-like outer border frames the design, with abbreviated lettering distributed around the periphery. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The Bishops of Geneva exercised temporal coinage rights throughout the medieval period, a privilege repeatedly contested by the counts of Savoy, whose territorial ambitions brought them into sustained conflict with episcopal authority over the city. The fourteenth century saw that tension peak, with coinage serving as a deliberate assertion of jurisdictional independence rather than mere commercial necessity.
The obole, as the half-denier fraction, circulated primarily in small local transactions and alms-giving contexts where full deniers were impractical. At this weight, attrition was rapid.