Quart de gros - Emmanuel-Philibert 8e type

Emmanuel-Philibert recovered Savoy from French occupation only after the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559, and much of his subsequent monetary program was an explicit effort to reassert ducal authority over a territory that had spent decades under foreign administration. His extensive billon coinage — issued across multiple types through the 1560s and 1570s — was as much a political instrument as a practical one, flooding local markets with coins bearing his name at a moment when the legitimacy of his rule still needed reinforcing. The quart de gros sat at the lower end of that program, intended for everyday transaction in markets from Turin to Geneva.