Pistole - Immobilization in the name of Charles V

Besançon occupied a peculiar constitutional position — a free imperial city within the Holy Roman Empire, technically subordinate to the emperor yet fiercely protective of its minting privileges. By 1652, Charles V had been dead for nearly a century, but the city continued striking gold in his name, a deliberate legal fiction that preserved its coinage rights without acknowledging the reigning Habsburg. This practice of "immobilization" — freezing a coin type at a specific historical ruler's name — was a recognized mechanism in imperial monetary law, not a fraud but a carefully maintained political stance.

The Fr#75 variant designation suggests die differences exist within this short striking window of 1652–1654, though the precise number of die marriages documented for this type remains limited in the literature.