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 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Teston (0.30) |
| 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 | Central field bears the papal arms of Innocent XI (Odescalchi), displaying an eagle displayed above two diagonal bands with six goblets, all surmounted by the papal tiara and crossed keys of Saint Peter. The shield is set within an elaborate baroque cartouche with foliate scrollwork. The circumferential legend INNOCENTIVS · XI · PONT · MAX · runs around the periphery, with the date 1684 divided at the top of the field. The coin is struck with a boldly milled edge, and the entire composition is rendered in the high-relief baroque style characteristic of late seventeenth-century Roman papal coinage. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Latin |
| 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 in the thick of organizing the Holy League against the Ottomans when this testone was struck, and the papal treasury was under genuine strain from subsidizing the campaign that would culminate in the relief of Vienna the previous year. The motto translates roughly as "it is better to give than to receive," a Pauline phrase that sat awkwardly alongside the aggressive fundraising the Curia was conducting across Catholic Europe to finance the war effort.
Innocent was beatified in 1956, one of very few popes on circulating coinage to later receive that distinction.