1/2 Zecchino - Pius VI

Pius VI was 79 years old and effectively a prisoner of circumstance when this coin was struck. Napoleon's Italian campaign had already dismembered the Papal States through the Treaty of Tolentino in February 1797, stripping Rome of cash, art, and territory simultaneously. The indemnity demanded — thirty million livres in currency and valuables — forced the papal treasury into a desperate scramble, and small gold fractional issues like this half zecchino were among the last instruments of a functioning papal monetary administration before French troops occupied Rome in February 1798 and declared a republic.