1 Testone - Gregory XIII

Gregory XIII is best remembered for the 1582 calendar reform that bears his name, but his administration of the Papal States was equally consequential in monetary terms. Ancona, as the primary Adriatic port of the papal territories, maintained its own mint largely because of the volume of trade with Ottoman and Ragusan merchants who demanded locally struck silver. The testone denomination itself had become the workhorse of Italian commercial exchange by this period, and Ancona's issues circulated well beyond the city walls into the Dalmatian coast trade networks.