1 Bianco - Pius V

Pius V — the Dominican friar Antonio Ghislieri — was elected in January 1566 and immediately set about enforcing the decrees of the Council of Trent with a severity his predecessors had largely avoided. Bologna, as one of the wealthiest cities in the Papal States, operated its own mint under papal authority, and the bianco denomination was the workhouse silver of central Italian commerce throughout the sixteenth century.

Pius V's reign coincided with the formation of the Holy League and the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the defining military event of his pontificate. He died in May 1572, just months after the victory.