1 Quattrino - Pier Luigi Farnese

Pier Luigi Farnese received the Duchy of Castro in 1537 as a papal grant from his father Paul III, making this issue one of the earliest coins struck for that territory. His tenure was short and violent — he was assassinated by local nobles in Piacenza in September 1547, almost certainly with Spanish connivance, which hard-dates the production window for this type to just two years. Castro itself was later razed to its foundations by papal forces in 1649, leaving the duchy's entire coinage output as orphaned relics of a state that no longer physically exists.