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1 Quattrino - Sixtus IV S LAVREN' D VITERB
| Issuer | Papal States (Mint of Viterbo) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1471-1484 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | 19 mm |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Full-length frontal figure of Saint Lawrence, nimbed and robed, standing within a beaded oval or mandorla, holding a book in one hand and the gridiron — the instrument of his martyrdom — in the other. The saint is depicted in the hieratic style typical of late medieval Italian ecclesiastical coinage. The surrounding legend within a beaded border identifies the saint and the issuing mint city of Viterbo. |
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| Mintage | ND (1471-1484) |
| Additional information |
Sixtus IV — the pope who commissioned the Sistine Chapel's construction and whose nepotism scandals were extraordinary even by Renaissance papal standards — ruled during a period when the Mint of Viterbo operated with considerable autonomy under local civic sanction. Viterbo had long been a papal seat before Rome reasserted dominance, and its mint retained the right to strike small billon coinage well into the fifteenth century.
The quattrino denomination sat at the lowest practical tier of daily commerce — bread, ferries, small market transactions. Survival in any grade above heavily worn is uncommon precisely because these coins lived hard in the hands of the poor.