1 Sol

Geneva struck its own copper coinage throughout the late sixteenth century as an independent city-republic, and the 1590 sol falls squarely within a period of intense confessional tension following the city's definitive embrace of Calvinism decades earlier. The municipal mint operated under tight council oversight, and small copper issues like this one served the everyday commerce of a city that had become a refuge for Protestant exiles from across Europe — a population that strained local monetary supply considerably.