1 Testone - Gregorius XIII Jubilee

Gregory XIII declared 1575 a Holy Year — only the second jubilee to fall on a 25-year cycle since Clement VI established that interval in 1343. Rome was flooded with pilgrims, and the Ancona mint struck this testone specifically to meet the demand for hard currency along the Adriatic pilgrimage corridor. Ancona functioned as the primary port of entry for pilgrims arriving overland from the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans.

The 25-year jubilee cycle itself was still contested in Gregory's time; earlier popes had issued jubilees on irregular schedules. This coin exists partly because the calendar reform Gregory pushed through seven years later — the Gregorian calendar of 1582 — required the kind of administrative confidence that a well-managed jubilee year helped establish.