Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Testone - Innocent XI MELIVS EST DARE QVAM ACCIPERE
| Issuer | Papal States |
|---|---|
| Year | 1684-1689 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The Latin motto MELIVS EST DARE QVAM ACCIPERE, meaning 'It is better to give than to receive' (Acts 20:35), displayed in five lines of bold Roman lettering across the flat field. The inscription is framed within an elaborate baroque cartouche formed by intertwined foliate and rope-work ornament, with scrolled corners and a knotted finial at top and bottom. The entire design is encircled by a beaded border and a reeded outer rim. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Innocent XI — Benedetto Odescalchi — was elected in 1676 after two inconclusive conclaves and immediately set about reforming a papacy he considered financially and morally dissolute. He slashed court expenditures, banned nepotism with unusual seriousness, and redirected papal funds toward the defense of Vienna against the Ottoman siege of 1683. The motto on this testone, "It is better to give than to receive," was not decorative piety — it reflected a pontificate that liquidated personal wealth and papal reserves to bankroll the Holy League.
His conflict with Louis XIV over Gallicanism and the régale affair ran concurrently with these issues, leaving the papacy diplomatically isolated from France precisely when it most needed unified Christian support.