Clement X was nearly eighty years old when he proclaimed the 1675 Holy Year, and his frail health meant much of the actual administration fell to Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri degli Albertoni, his nephew by adoption. The Jubilee still drew enormous crowds to Rome — contemporary accounts put attendance in the hundreds of thousands — and the commemorative coinage issued across the year documented each ceremonial stage, including the formal closing of the Holy Door at Saint Peter's that this half grosso records.
The series to which this piece belongs is among the more systematically collected of all papal jubilee coinages, with individual types tied to specific liturgical events rather than issued generically.
Clement X was nearly eighty years old when he proclaimed the 1675 Holy Year, and his frail health meant much of the actual administration fell to Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri degli Albertoni, his nephew by adoption. The Jubilee still drew enormous crowds to Rome — contemporary accounts put attendance in the hundreds of thousands — and the commemorative coinage issued across the year documented each ceremonial stage, including the formal closing of the Holy Door at Saint Peter's that this half grosso records.
The series to which this piece belongs is among the more systematically collected of all papal jubilee coinages, with individual types tied to specific liturgical events rather than issued generically.