3 Piccioli - Filippo IV

Philip IV ruled Sicily as absentee king from Madrid, and the island's copper coinage during his reign was chronically debased and irregularly produced — local mints operated under viceregal authority with minimal oversight from the Crown. The piccioli denominations were the everyday currency of Sicilian commoners at a time when the kingdom was being bled dry by Spanish war financing, particularly the costs of the Thirty Years' War and repeated conflicts with France.

The Spahr range of 168–176 reflects genuine die variety proliferation across the reign's two decades, not collector splitting.