120 Grana - Carlo I

Carlo di Borbone arrived in Naples in 1734 after Spanish Bourbon forces swept the Austrians out of the kingdom, and his early coinage was struck with a deliberate propagandistic urgency — he needed hard money circulating fast to legitimize a dynasty that had held the throne for under a year. The 120 Grana was the prestige denomination of this program, equivalent to the large silver crowns of the major European powers.

The .961 fineness is notably high for Neapolitan silver of the period, a conscious departure from the debased issues of the preceding Austrian administration.