Clement XI is best remembered numismatically for the 1713 papal bull Unigenitus, which condemned Jansenist theology and ignited a political firestorm across Catholic Europe — particularly in France, where the Parlement refused to register it. This grosso predates that explosion by a year, struck while the Pope was already navigating the catastrophic fallout from his 1713 recognition of the Spanish Bourbon claimant, a misstep that drew Imperial wrath and left the Papal States briefly occupied by Austrian troops in 1708.
Berman 2423 is among the scarcer of Clement's grosso issues, with surviving examples frequently showing weak peripheral definition on the reverse — a known characteristic of the die preparation at the Rome mint during this period rather than a circulation artifact.
Clement XI is best remembered numismatically for the 1713 papal bull Unigenitus, which condemned Jansenist theology and ignited a political firestorm across Catholic Europe — particularly in France, where the Parlement refused to register it. This grosso predates that explosion by a year, struck while the Pope was already navigating the catastrophic fallout from his 1713 recognition of the Spanish Bourbon claimant, a misstep that drew Imperial wrath and left the Papal States briefly occupied by Austrian troops in 1708.
Berman 2423 is among the scarcer of Clement's grosso issues, with surviving examples frequently showing weak peripheral definition on the reverse — a known characteristic of the die preparation at the Rome mint during this period rather than a circulation artifact.