1 Zecchino - Leopoldo II

The Florentine zecchino survived into the nineteenth century largely on institutional inertia — Venetian sequins had set the commercial standard for Mediterranean gold coinage since the thirteenth century, and Tuscan merchants expected the type. Leopoldo II, the last Grand Duke to reign before Tuscany's absorption into unified Italy, minted these across nearly three decades of Austrian-backed rule that was interrupted only by the revolutionary upheaval of 1848–1849, when he briefly fled to Gaeta before being restored by Austrian troops.

The .998 fineness held to a purity standard that predated the coin by centuries — the zecchino's commercial value depended on that consistency above all else.