1 Testone - Innocent XI MELIVS EST DARE QVAM ACCIPERE

Innocent XI — Benedetto Odescalchi — was the driving financial force behind the Holy League that stopped the Ottoman advance at Vienna in 1683, personally funding much of the campaign when Catholic monarchs proved slow to contribute. His motto coinage, of which this testone is a late example, was issued in the years immediately following that victory, when his political standing in Europe was at its peak despite mounting friction with Louis XIV over Gallicanism and the right of asylum.

The motto translates roughly as "it is better to give than to receive" — a pointed self-reference from a pope whose reign was defined by extracting and redirecting wealth toward military and charitable ends.