Florence minted this short-lived denomination during a period of acute financial crisis: 1345 saw the catastrophic collapse of the Bardi and Peruzzi banking houses, whose combined exposure to Edward III's defaulted English war debts wiped out what had been the largest financial institutions in Europe. The guelfo di 4 soldi was part of a broader attempt to stabilize Florentine silver coinage as credit markets seized and the city's commercial networks convulsed.
The type had a remarkably brief production window, struck across little more than a single fiscal year before being abandoned.
Florence minted this short-lived denomination during a period of acute financial crisis: 1345 saw the catastrophic collapse of the Bardi and Peruzzi banking houses, whose combined exposure to Edward III's defaulted English war debts wiped out what had been the largest financial institutions in Europe. The guelfo di 4 soldi was part of a broader attempt to stabilize Florentine silver coinage as credit markets seized and the city's commercial networks convulsed.
The type had a remarkably brief production window, struck across little more than a single fiscal year before being abandoned.