Post Your Papal States Coins - Reverse Chronological Schedule By Ruler

This week, let's see coins of the last third of the 18th century:
Clement XIV (1769-1775)
Pius VI (1775-1799)
Sede Vacante (1799-1800)
(sorry for being late in rolling back the clock).

A bit more on the tumultuous historical context ...

When Pius VI became pope in 1775, the Papal States looked more-or-less like this:

Additionally included was the Comtat Venaissin, a chunk of northern Provence, France, held by the popes since the late 1200s.

Things changed quicky with the French Revolution (which was notoriously hostile to the Catholic church). The Comtat Venaissin was taken by the revolutionaries in 1791, at which point Pope Pius VI severed diplomatic ties with France. Then, in 1796, Napoleon invaded Italy, penetrating as far as the Adriatic provinces of the Papal States, Romagna and Marche in the map above. Pius was forced to cede these in the peace of Tolentino (1797). But it didn't take long for a pretext for Napoleon to grab Rome came about (February 1798). When Pius refused to cede authority there, he was imprisoned, and died in mid-1799 in southern France.

Since holding conclave in enemy territory (Rome under French rule) was out of the question, the cardinals made the unusual decision to hold conclave in Venice, at the time under Austrian rule (it has not been held outside Rome since). It took more than six months to elect Pius VII, whose coins we saw last week. He didn't fare much better in his on-and-off relationship with the French (1809-1813 was spent in exile outside the Papal States), but he managed to outlast Napoleon, and regain his territory after the 1814 abdication.

I've finally got some coins to contribute, starting with this 1796 2 1/2 baiocco, nicknamed "sampietrino" struck in Ancona, one of the earliest places in the Italian province of Marche to strike coins under Papal authority:

Copyright Bertolami Fine Arts

As best I can tell, 1796 was the last year this mint struck coins under Papal authority.

Excellent coin, tdziemia, and thank you for the historical summary!

I'll post two different types of 1 baiocco,issued by Pius VI.

The first is from 1782 and has quite an unusual date placement on the obverse where the tassels of the keys dissect the date.



This baiocco has the usual heraldic achievement on the obverse with a simple text on the reverse.

Me too! I'll have to see if I can finally add something from my collection this week.

Fantastic examples!

My other coin of Pius VI is this hefty (10+ grams) 5 baiocco struck in Perugia in 1797 (pontificate Anno XXIII).
Looks like it's been through a war (oh, wait! maybe it was!)



Since the iconography of saints on coins is a personal interest, I like that the image in this one does not define Mary in terms of her relationship to her child, like all those Hungarian and Bavarian madonnas (though the inscription reminds us).

The Saint Peter a few posts earlier, on the other hand, bears a very standard representation of a bald, bearded guy holding keys.

Very nice!

To keep up the coins of Pius VI I have added in this 2 Carlini coin from 1781.

Again the engravers have been inventive on the obverse in how they have added in the regnal year between the tassels of the decorative cord at the bottom of the crossed keys motif. However the design is slightly unbalanced by having the A on one side and a star on the other.

On the reverse the text does appear slightly uneven in size (see large L in centre as an example) but I think adds to the charm of the coin where an engraver has clearly prepared all this by hand.




Apparently the actual denomination "carlini" can be traced back to the reign of Charles I of Anjou (Carlo I d'Angiò) in the Kingdom of Naples during the 13th century. So it's a derivative of "Charles".