1 Grosso - Pius VI AUXILIUM DE SANCTO - Cartouche

Pius VI's reign coincided with one of the most financially precarious periods in papal history. The massive drainage works at the Pontine Marshes — his most ambitious public project — consumed extraordinary treasury resources through the late 1770s and into the 1780s, pressuring the mint to maintain tight silver output across the fractional denominations. This grosso, struck across five years at Rome, reflects that constrained fiscal environment.

The Munt#52-53 distinction corresponds to minor die variations across the emission period — worth noting for specialists building a complete type set of Pius VI's silver.