18 Scudi - Pope Pius VI

The Sacro Monte della Pietà di Roma was a pawnbroking institution founded in 1539 specifically to offer the Roman poor an alternative to usurious moneylenders. By the late eighteenth century it had evolved into a quasi-banking authority, issuing hand-written cedole — obligation notes — that circulated as a de facto paper currency within the Papal States. This 18 Scudi denomination sits in an unusual register: too large for everyday transactions, too small for major commercial settlements.

Pius VI's pontificate ended in humiliation — Napoleon's forces seized him in 1798, and he died a French prisoner in Valence the following year. Notes issued under his authority during the 1785–1795 window predate that collapse, but the institution itself survived the Napoleonic disruption and continued issuing into the nineteenth century.

Each cedola was written and signed by hand, making no two examples strictly identical.