Gorizia's copper fractional coinage under Charles VI existed largely because the county's small-denomination economy had long relied on a patchwork of foreign pieces — Venetian bagattini, Styrian pfennigs — that circulated without official sanction. The Habsburg administration's decision to issue locally struck copper fractions was as much about asserting fiscal order over a border county as meeting any genuine shortage of small change.
The date range on this type spans Charles VI's death in 1740, meaning later pieces were struck under Maria Theresa continuing the same dies or closely copied types — a not uncommon administrative stopgap in peripheral Habsburg mints during succession transitions.
Gorizia's copper fractional coinage under Charles VI existed largely because the county's small-denomination economy had long relied on a patchwork of foreign pieces — Venetian bagattini, Styrian pfennigs — that circulated without official sanction. The Habsburg administration's decision to issue locally struck copper fractions was as much about asserting fiscal order over a border county as meeting any genuine shortage of small change.
The date range on this type spans Charles VI's death in 1740, meaning later pieces were struck under Maria Theresa continuing the same dies or closely copied types — a not uncommon administrative stopgap in peripheral Habsburg mints during succession transitions.