120 Grana - Ferdinando II 4th portrait

The 120 Grana was the premier silver denomination of the Bourbon kingdom, and Ferdinando II's fourth portrait type — introduced in the 1850s — reflects a reign that had turned sharply reactionary after the 1848 revolutions. His brutal suppression of the Sicilian and Neapolitan uprisings earned him the epithet "Re Bomba" from Gladstone, whose published letters condemning the Neapolitan political prisons caused a diplomatic scandal across Europe.

Production continued until Ferdinando's death in 1859, just one year before Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand ended Bourbon rule entirely. Coins from the final years of issue effectively circulated under two successive governments within months.