Medieval Coin Cabinet

Research

The Duchy of Lorraine

A scholarly survey of the duchy, its rulers, and its coinage.

Lorraine (French: Lorraine; German: Lothringen) was a duchy in the northeast of present-day France and, until 1766, a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire. Its former territory, together with adjacent historical lands, is today divided among the French region of Grand Est, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

The research collected here is arranged along three axes: the historical background of the duchy, its coinage by the ruler who issued it, and its coinage by the mint that struck it. Where the published authorities disagree — and on attribution they frequently do — the competing readings are set out side by side rather than quietly resolved in favour of one.

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Historical Background

The origins of Lotharingia, the formation of the duchy, and Lorraine's changing relationship with France and the Empire.

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Coinage by Ruler

The coinage arranged chronologically by issuing ruler, with disputed attributions shown under every duke claimed for them.

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Coinage by Mint

Mints, legends, periods of operation, and the documentary and numismatic evidence used to identify places of issue.

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Featured research

Detailed studies of individual reigns, combining biography with a type-by-type examination of the coinage and the authorities on which its attribution rests.

Line drawing of both faces of a denier of Nancy: an armed horseman with raised sword and FERI beneath the horse on the obverse, and on the reverse an arm in a hatched sleeve issuing from the lower edge of the field and holding a sword upright, flanked by a crescent and a star, with the letters of the legend around

Ruler study

Ferry III

r. 1251–1303

Half a century on the ducal throne produced the richest coinage in the series — abundant enough to collect in depth, and still resisting confident arrangement.

Line drawing of both faces of a denier of Neufchâteau: on the obverse an armed horseman riding to the right with a raised sword, a six-pointed star between two dots in the exergue beneath the horse; on the reverse a cross pattée in the field, the legend running around it between beaded borders and beginning with a star

Ruler study

Thibaut II

r. 1303–1312

A coinage that divides at the accession: three years struck as heir presumptive at Neufchâteau, nine as duke at Nancy, the difference one of rank rather than fashion.

Line drawing of both faces of a denier of Nancy: an armed horseman with raised sword and a Gothic M beneath the horse on the obverse, and an imperial eagle with letters of the legend disposed around it on the reverse

Ruler study

Matthew II

r. 1220–1251

A coinage assembled by inference: the deniers name their mints but seldom their duke, so the corpus rests on the towns Matthew acquired and his well-documented habit of answering an acquisition with a coin.

Dukes of Lorraine

Browse the coinage and historical studies by ruler. Reigns still awaiting a biography are marked Forthcoming; their pages carry the regnal dates and nothing more.

Medieval dukes 1220–1473

House of Lorraine 1473–1624

Seventeenth-century succession 1624–1690

The restored duchy 1690–1729

Research notes

Attributions, dates and mint identifications are presented with the evidence on which they rest. Where published authorities disagree, competing interpretations are retained rather than silently harmonised, and a type known only from an engraving is not listed as a coin.