See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration! or register with email

Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!

1/2 Giulio - Clement VII Saint Justina

Issuer Papal Mint of Piacenza (Papal States)
Year 1523-1528
Type Standard circulation coin
Value Log in to see details
Currency Log in to see details
Composition Log in to see details
Weight Log in to see details
Diameter Log in to see details
Thickness Log in to see details
Shape Log in to see details
Technique Log in to see details
Orientation Log in to see details
Engraver(s) Log in to see details
In circulation to Log in to see details
Reference(s) Log in to see details
Obverse description Log in to see details
Obverse script Log in to see details
Obverse lettering Log in to see details
Reverse description Full-length figure of Saint Justina of Padua, patron saint of Piacenza, standing facing in the field, nimbed (halo behind head), draped in long flowing robes, and holding a crozier or palm in her right hand. The figure is rendered in a flat, linear style typical of hammered papal coinage of the period. A beaded inner circle frames the central device, with the surrounding legend identifying her as protectress of the city.
Reverse script Log in to see details
Reverse lettering Log in to see details
Edge Log in to see details
Mint Piacenza Mint
Mintage Log in to see details
Additional information

Clement VII's pontificate began in 1523 under reasonable circumstances and collapsed into catastrophe. When imperial troops — many of them unpaid Lutheran Landsknechte — sacked Rome in May 1527, the papal mint operations were severely disrupted, and Clement himself was besieged inside Castel Sant'Angelo for seven months. Coinage from Piacenza during this window survives in part because the city's mint, operating at a remove from Rome, continued functioning while the central apparatus fell apart.

Saint Justina's patronage of Piacenza explains her presence on this issue — she was martyred there under Diocletian, and her cult remained central to local civic identity.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE