Rodrigo Borgia's pontificate produced some of the most politically turbulent coinage of the Renaissance papacy. The Apostolic Chamber struck these grossi while Alexander was simultaneously negotiating the Treaty of Tordesillas, dividing the New World between Spain and Portugal — a division he had unique authority to broker as a sitting pope with dynastic ties to the Spanish crown.
The CNI XIII references spanning numbers 6 through 16 reflect genuine die variation across the issue, not mere cataloguing redundancy.
Rodrigo Borgia's pontificate produced some of the most politically turbulent coinage of the Renaissance papacy. The Apostolic Chamber struck these grossi while Alexander was simultaneously negotiating the Treaty of Tordesillas, dividing the New World between Spain and Portugal — a division he had unique authority to broker as a sitting pope with dynastic ties to the Spanish crown.
The CNI XIII references spanning numbers 6 through 16 reflect genuine die variation across the issue, not mere cataloguing redundancy.