Carlo III of Spain held Sicily only briefly before ascending to the Spanish throne in 1759, but his Sicilian coinage represents a distinct administrative period under Bourbon rule following decades of contested control — the island had passed through Spanish, Savoyard, and Austrian hands within a single generation. The half tari denomination served petty commerce in a kingdom where the monetary system remained stubbornly fragmented along medieval lines.
The .908 fineness was maintained with reasonable consistency under Carlo's Palermo mint, though Spahr's work on Sicilian coinage documents periodic weight irregularities in the smaller silver fractions of this decade.
Carlo III of Spain held Sicily only briefly before ascending to the Spanish throne in 1759, but his Sicilian coinage represents a distinct administrative period under Bourbon rule following decades of contested control — the island had passed through Spanish, Savoyard, and Austrian hands within a single generation. The half tari denomination served petty commerce in a kingdom where the monetary system remained stubbornly fragmented along medieval lines.
The .908 fineness was maintained with reasonable consistency under Carlo's Palermo mint, though Spahr's work on Sicilian coinage documents periodic weight irregularities in the smaller silver fractions of this decade.