Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 1776. Estimate $100.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $130. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

FRANCE, Provincial. Avignon. Civic coinage. 12th-13th century. AR Obol (0.84 g, 11h). Struck 1196-1251. + ΛVINIO :, key facing downward / + : N[E]NSIS :, cross pattée. Poey d'Avant 4129; Boudeau 891; Roberts 4711. VF, toned.

From the Leonard O. Greenfield Collection.

The city was a mutual possession of the counts of Provence, Forcalquier, and Toulouse, and was governed by a municipal aristocracy, led by the bishop. At the beginning of the 12th century, the city acquired communal rights. After siding with the count of Toulouse in the Albigensian War, the city was forced to surrender itself to Louis VIII of France in 1226, and later forged a bond with Arles and Marseille, ultimately giving up its independence and communal state in 1251. The city would then flourish when pope Clement V relocated the papacy from Rome to Avignon in 1309, where it would remain until 1377, the eventual return to Rome giving rise to the Papal Schism.