2 Baiocchi - Pius VI

Foligno held provisional mint rights under Papal authority during a period when Rome was scrambling to supply copper coinage to the provinces. By the mid-1790s, the Papal States were financially strained by the indemnities extracted after French military pressure, and peripheral mints like Foligno were pressed into service to fill circulation gaps that Rome could not cover alone. Pius VI would be taken prisoner by French forces in 1798 and die in Valence the following year — this issue dates from the last window of stable Papal minting authority before that collapse.