1 Scudo d'Oro - Urban VIII Holy Door

Urban VIII opened the Holy Year of 1625 — a Jubilee year, convened every quarter-century since Boniface VIII established the tradition in 1300 — amid the early tremors of the Thirty Years' War. The Holy Door coinage was struck specifically for the occasion, functioning as both devotional object and diplomatic currency at a court acutely conscious of its diminishing temporal power against the Protestant north.

Maffeo Barberini had been elected pope in 1623, and the 1625 Jubilee was his first major ceremonial coinage. The CNI XVI references cluster around six die pairings for this type, suggesting limited but carefully managed production.