2 Carlini Romani - Pius VI Small Coat of Arms

Struck in the final years before Napoleon's troops seized Rome and abolished the temporal power of the papacy, this issue belongs to a period of acute fiscal stress in the Papal States. Pius VI had already been forced to cede significant treasures and territories under the Armistice of Bologna in 1796, and the degraded billon composition of these later carlini reflects a treasury that was effectively bankrupt. The French occupation of Rome in February 1798 ended the series entirely — Pius VI himself was taken prisoner and died in French custody at Valence the following year.