40 Lire - Maria Luigia

Maria Luigia received the Duchy of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla as a consolation sovereignty under the 1814 Treaty of Fontainebleau — a diplomatic arrangement that kept Napoleon's Austrian wife comfortable while her husband rotted on Elba. She governed competently and by most accounts genuinely, remaining in Parma until her death in 1847. The gold coinage issued under her name follows the Napoleonic metric standard her husband had imposed across Europe, which Parma quietly retained long after the Congress of Vienna made such continuity politically awkward.

Mintage across the full run was extremely limited, reflecting Parma's modest size and revenue base.