1 Ducat - Alexander VI Giovanni Battista Orsini Legate

Giovanni Battista Orsini served as papal legate to Bologna under Alexander VI, a posting that came with the right to strike coinage — a privilege Bologna's governors wielded jealously throughout the papal period. Orsini's legateship coincided almost exactly with Cesare Borgia's systematic campaign to consolidate control over the Romagna, which put Bologna under intense political pressure and made the continuity of local mint authority a matter of some significance.

Alexander VI died in August 1503, fixing the terminal date of this type precisely.