Duro Gerona

Gerona's duro was struck under emergency authority during the French siege of 1808, one of the most brutal urban sieges of the Peninsular War. The city held out through two separate sieges — the coin predates the catastrophic second siege of 1809, during which roughly a third of the population died from combat, disease, and starvation. Local silver was commandeered and minted hastily to pay defenders, giving these pieces the rough, uneven fabric characteristic of crisis coinage produced without adequate equipment or time.