1 Quattrino - Sixtus IV S LAVREN' D VITERB

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.