1 Piastra - Innocent X

Innocent X — born Giambattista Pamphilj — was elected in 1644 after one of the most contentious conclaves of the seventeenth century, with the Spanish crown actively blocking the frontrunner Sacchetti. His pontificate coincided almost exactly with the final years of the Thirty Years' War, and the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 significantly curtailed papal political authority in European affairs. The piastra was the prestige silver denomination of the Papal mint, struck at Rome in limited quantities relative to billon and copper issues that actually drove day-to-day commerce in the Papal States.

The KM#241 attribution places this among a small cluster of heavy silver issues from his reign, none struck in large numbers.