1/2 Giulio - Clement VII Saint Justina

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.