1 Piastra - Clement XI IN HONOREM S THEODORI MAR

Clement XI is better remembered for the catastrophic Bull Unigenitus (1713) and his hapless role in the War of the Spanish Succession than for his coinage, but the 1703 piastra predates both disasters. That year the Papal States were under acute pressure from the competing Bourbon and Habsburg factions each demanding Rome's political allegiance — Clement's attempt at neutrality ultimately satisfied no one and cost the papacy considerable temporal influence.

San Teodoro's veneration in Venice makes the dedication notable: invoking a Venetian patron saint on a Roman piastre in 1703 carried quiet diplomatic weight at a moment when the Republic of Venice remained a significant Catholic power Clement could not afford to alienate.