1/2 Baiocco - Benedict XIV Giovanni Battista Barni Legate

Benedict XIV — Prospero Lambertini, the Bologna-born pope widely regarded as the most intellectually able of the eighteenth century — appointed Giovanni Battista Barni as legate to Ferrara during a period of sustained administrative pressure on the papal legations. The Ferrara mint had operated under legatine authority since the city's devolution to the Holy See in 1598, and issues of this type were produced to meet local copper circulation needs rather than any broader monetary programme.

The Munt#343-349 range reflects multiple die marriages across the three-year emission — not a single issue, but a sequence of small runs.