5 Tornesi - Ferdinando IV

Ferdinando IV's copper tornesi issues of this period were struck against a backdrop of acute political crisis — French Revolutionary forces had pushed into the Italian peninsula, and the Kingdom of Naples was scrambling to maintain fiscal credibility while simultaneously funding military resistance. Copper coinage production accelerated sharply in 1797–98 precisely because silver was being hoarded and diverted. These pieces circulated hard in a panicked economy.

The 1799 Parthenopean Republic, established just months after this coin's minting window closed, melted significant quantities of Bourbon copper for its own emergency issues.