Grosso Agostano

Rimini's communal coinage emerged during a period of fierce factional conflict between Guelph and Ghibelline interests across the Romagna, with the city oscillating between papal jurisdiction and imperial alignment throughout the thirteenth century. The Agostano takes its name from the silver augustalis tradition, though its local character is unmistakably Romagnol. By the mid-fourteenth century, the Malatesta family had consolidated enough power in Rimini to effectively control municipal institutions, meaning later issues of this type were struck under conditions that were communal in name only.