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1 Scudo - Leone XII AVXILIVM DE SANCTO - Holy Mother Church
| Issuer | Papal States |
|---|---|
| Year | 1825-1826 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | KM#1297, Gigante#7, Biaggi#3255, Munt#14, MIR#3074 |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Allegorical figure of the Holy Mother Church (Ecclesia) seated in three-quarter view upon clouds, robed in flowing drapery, holding a long processional cross in her left hand and gesturing with her right. A domed basilica, representing St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, is visible in the right background field. The legend AVXILIVM DE SANCTO arcs across the upper portion of the coin, with the date and mint mark positioned in the lower field. The composition is classically balanced and conveys the spiritual authority and temporal power of the papacy. |
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| Reverse lettering | AVXILIVM DE SANCTO CERBARA .B. 1825 (Translation: Help from the Holy One) |
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| Additional information |
Leone XII issued this scudo in the immediate aftermath of his 1823 election, a pontificate defined largely by his aggressive reversal of Napoleonic-era liberalizations. He abolished street lighting in Rome on the grounds that it encouraged nocturnal vice, reimposed ghetto restrictions on the Jewish population, and returned the Papal States to a governance so reactionary that even conservative Catholic commentators found it excessive. The coin circulates against that backdrop — not ecclesiastical ceremony but political retrenchment made metallic.
The AVXILIVM DE SANCTO legend draws from Psalm 19, a deliberate invocation of divine sanction for temporal authority at a moment when that authority was under sustained ideological pressure from liberal nationalism across the Italian peninsula.