4 soldi - Siro d`Autriche prince de Correggio

Siro d'Austria — the name alone signals the political maneuvering behind this issue. He was a legitimized descendant of the Habsburg line through Ferdinand of Austria, and the Principality of Correggio clung to that connection for survival, wedged as it was between the Duchy of Parma and the Duchy of Modena. The billon composition reflects chronic silver shortages that plagued the smaller north Italian states through the early seventeenth century, forcing mints to stretch their coinage with increasing copper content.

Siro ruled until 1630, the year Correggio was devastated by plague during the broader catastrophe that swept Lombardy and Emilia.