Patagon - Sede Vacante

Sede vacante coinage was struck by cathedral chapters to assert their right to govern — and mint — during the gap between a bishop's death and his successor's consecration. In Liège, that gap in 1792 was no administrative formality. The prince-bishopric was collapsing under revolutionary pressure from France, and the Chapter of Saint-Lambert was effectively minting coins for a polity already in its death throes. The diocese would be suppressed entirely in 1795, and the cathedral itself demolished shortly after.

This patagon is among the last substantial silver issues from an institution that had exercised temporal authority for nearly eight centuries.