Pius VI's pontificate ended in humiliation: Napoleon's forces occupied the Papal States in 1797, and the aged pope was eventually dragged from Rome in 1798, dying a French prisoner in Valence the following year. Matelica, a small papal fief in the Marche, struck this quattrino in the very year the political order underpinning its authority began to collapse. Local copper issues from minor papal dependencies in 1797 are scarce survivors — most minting activity was disrupted or simply abandoned within months of issue.
Pius VI's pontificate ended in humiliation: Napoleon's forces occupied the Papal States in 1797, and the aged pope was eventually dragged from Rome in 1798, dying a French prisoner in Valence the following year. Matelica, a small papal fief in the Marche, struck this quattrino in the very year the political order underpinning its authority began to collapse. Local copper issues from minor papal dependencies in 1797 are scarce survivors — most minting activity was disrupted or simply abandoned within months of issue.