100 Lire

The 100 Lire denomination was among the largest gold coins struck by the Genoese mint during the eighteenth century, issued under the authority of the Doge and Governors during a period when Genoa was already in marked political and financial decline. The Republic had never fully recovered from the 1746 Austrian occupation, during which Habsburg troops were famously expelled by a popular uprising — the so-called Balilla revolt — that became central to Genoese civic memory even as the city's actual commercial power continued to erode.

The .909 fineness places this issue within Genoa's later gold standard, maintained partly to preserve trade credibility with Mediterranean partners even as Piedmont-Sardinia pressed on the Republic's borders.