1 Testone - Alfonso II

Alfonso II d'Este died in 1597 leaving no legitimate heir, a failure that handed Pope Clement VIII the legal pretext to invoke imperial feudal law and absorb Ferrara directly into the Papal States the following year. This testone was struck in the final year of meaningful Este authority over the city — within eighteen months of its minting, the dynasty's 350-year grip on Ferrara was extinguished by a papal army that encountered no serious resistance.