395, Lot: 465. Estimate $150. Sold for $140. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

FRANCE, Provincial. Metz (évêché). Anonymous. 14th-16th centuries. AR Gros (26mm, 2.77 g, 9h). St. Étienne kneeling left; civic coat-of-arms of Metz to left and right; manus Dei above / Cross pattée with star in each quarter. Robert p. 213, 4; Boudeau 1659-60; Roberts 8932. Good VF, toned.

From the J. Eric Engstrom Collection, purchased from Carl Subak, October 1972.

First mentioned in medieval times, Metz was burned to the ground by Attila the Hun in 451. Later, the city had important Carolingian ties, as it became the city where many of the early Carolingians were buried, was under consideration by Charlemagne to become his capital (eventually choosing Aachen), and was the place of Charles le Chauve’s coronation. Following this event, Metz became an episcopal city. Its final centuries as a free city were met with constant hostility, as four surrounding powers combined forces against it: the archbishop of Trier, the duke of Lorraine, and the counts of Bar and Luxembourg. The city finally succumbed to French rule following the Treaties of Osnabrück and Münster, eventually known as the Peace of Westphalia.