Post Your Papal States Coins - Reverse Chronological Schedule By Ruler

Nice addition, Bacchus2.

I'll excuse myself if there are more coins from the reign of Sixtus, as I jump ahead to Gregory XIII with this 1582 teston with a very seasonal theme on the reverse:



The reverse shows an Easter morning scene, with Mary Magdalene encountering the risen Christ outside his tomb, who she mistakes for a gardener (the biblical reference is in John 20). The engraver took this (rather literally) to mean Christ might have been holding a shovel. I think the legend NOLI ME TANGERE translates as "Don't touch me." A bit out of context, because it is followed by an exhortation to tell others about having seen him. But I love the realistic postures of Mary and Christ.
The Renaissance and baroque era papal engravers drew heavily on centuries of traditional iconography like this, which makes their coins almost like an art history lesson.

now, that is a very nice coin, tdz!

Are they taking visitors? Just kidding, but as we ramble through central Italy on this thread, I'm reminded Marche is one or the parts of Italy I've never set foot in (though I suppose that cousin is in Abruzzo?). I used to travel to Emilia-Romagna for work, and remember seeing the autostrada marked towards Ancona, but Ravenna and maybe Forli are as close as I ever got.


I remember doing some work on the Numista listing for this coin and realizing there were a lot of variants to the pope's vestments. The referee used wording "Christ in niche" for that, so I don;t know quite what it's supposed to be. https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces449797.html

Also, interesting that my example has such a faint X in XIII for Gregory's number obverse that it looks more like GREGORIVS III. Not sure if that's coin wear, die wear or if the engraver somehow lost track of what he was doing with the lettering over there, since it also looks like the letter O in PONT was done twice.

I assume it's to depict something like this where a sarcophagus lies within a recess - that type of imagery anyway,






He and his family live is a small village called Archi in the Abruzzo region - more or less level with Rome - but closer to the Adriatic. Absolutely gorgeous scenery and food. And wine!

Lots of good discussion!
That crypt niche has the right look ... I wonder if that vestment has the stations of the cross (which I think includes a scene where Christ is laid in a tomb), or some other story on it, and just that panel is showing .

j1m, I see what you mean on the double strike. I have a more severe one coming up next week.

As for Gregory XIII, he's the guy after whom the Gregorian calendar is named, and he was also the last pope to have "confirmed" (i.e. legitimized) offspring (one son).

Here is another teston struck by Gregory XIII, this time at Rome and undated, though attributed at 1574-1575, and with a different biblical scene reverse, of Moses with his staff being transformed into a snake (I've not yet looked up the specific passage that pertains to)



Gregory seems to have kept his engravers quite busy, as I see at least a half dozen types of testons struck during his 13 year reign (I haven't tried to count the other denominations).

I'll also point out that the decoration on Gregory's vestments on this coin REALLY looks like that tomb posted earlier by Bacchus2. This time the figure in the niche is wearing a miter, so it's not Christ.