1 Quattrino - Gregory XV

Gregory XV's pontificate lasted just over two years before his death in July 1623, making his copper issues among the shortest-produced of any seventeenth-century pope. He is better remembered for founding the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in 1622 — the same year this quattrino was struck — an institution that would shape Catholic missionary policy for centuries. The brevity of his reign keeps mintages for all his copper denominations modest, though worn survivors are common enough to suggest genuine circulation in the papal territories.