Pius VII spent nearly six years as Napoleon's prisoner — first in Savona, then Fontainebleau — before being released in 1814 and returning to Rome. The small copper issues that followed his restoration carried explicit symbols of papal authority partly as a deliberate reassertion of temporal power after that humiliation. The "large keys" variety of KM#1276.1 is distinguished from its companion type by the scale of the crossed keys on the reverse die, a detail that creates two collectible varieties within the same date range.
Pius VII spent nearly six years as Napoleon's prisoner — first in Savona, then Fontainebleau — before being released in 1814 and returning to Rome. The small copper issues that followed his restoration carried explicit symbols of papal authority partly as a deliberate reassertion of temporal power after that humiliation. The "large keys" variety of KM#1276.1 is distinguished from its companion type by the scale of the crossed keys on the reverse die, a detail that creates two collectible varieties within the same date range.