1 Piastra - Ferdinando I

Ferdinando I ruled Tuscany after abruptly renouncing his cardinalate in 1587 to succeed his brother Francesco I — who died, along with his wife Bianca Cappello, in circumstances suspicious enough that Ferdinando himself was widely rumored to have arranged it. His reign marked a deliberate pivot away from Spanish influence toward France, cemented by his marriage to Christine of Lorraine in 1589, the very year this piastra type begins. The heavy silver piastra denomination was integral to Medici commercial ambitions in Livorno, which Ferdinando was aggressively developing as a free port during this precise period.