FRANCE, Provincial. Florennes. Gaucher de Châtillon, 1313-1322. Esterlin (Silver, 19 mm, 1.29 g, 2 h), Sterling imitation of Edwardian type. Variety without bird ornaments in crown. Florennes (Florene), 1314-1322. ✠ GA[L'ChS] COMES*POR Crowned and draped bust facing. Rev. MON - E[T:F - LOR] - INS Long cross pattée, three pellets in angles. Mayhew 249 var. (without bird ornaments in crown). An apparently unpublished variety. Beautifully toned. Areas of weakness, otherwise, very fine.



Gaucher de Châtillon, Constable of France and Count of Porcien, struck coins in the lordships of Florennes and Neufchâteau as the husband of Isabelle de Rumigny, widow of Thibaud II of Lorraine, whom he married in 1313. In doing so, he imitated the English sterlings which had become highly popular across Europe through North Sea trade.

While the Esterlins of Yves are widely encountered, those of Florennes are extremely rare and are normally distinguished by the birdlike ornaments in the crown. However, our specimen represents a previously unpublished variety from Florennes, lacking the supposedly obligatory bird ornaments in the crown. Mayhew recorded only six specimens from Florennes (cf. N. J. Mayhew: Sterling Imitations of Edwardian Type, London 1983, pp. 99 f.). On all examples illustrated by him, the crown is adorned with the bird ornaments (Mayhew 249a–249d).

The clearly legible ‘INS’ on the reverse of our piece, however, leaves no doubt that it belongs to Florennes (‘FLORINS’). This discovery, on the one hand, contradicts Mayhew, who regarded the bird ornaments as a diagnostic feature of the Florennes mint; on the other hand, it supports his thesis of close interaction between the mints of Yves, where the Esterlins were minted without the bird ornaments, and Florennes (cf. Mayhew, op. cit., p. 99). It is quite possible that the obverse die of our specimen originally came from Yves.