6 Tornesi - Ferdinando IV

These years bracket one of the most chaotic periods in Neapolitan history. Ferdinando IV fled to Palermo in December 1798 under British naval escort as French forces advanced, and the short-lived Parthenopean Republic was proclaimed in January 1799. He returned to Naples following Cardinal Ruffo's brutal reconquest, but fled again in 1806 when Napoleon installed Joseph Bonaparte on the throne — leaving these copper tornesi circulating through a city that had twice changed governments by force within a decade.