Piastre - Gregory XV Ludovico Ludovisi Legate

Gregory XV held the papacy for just over two years before dying in 1623, but his tenure reshaped Catholic power in ways that outlasted him — most notably through his formal establishment of the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide in 1622 and his canonization of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier. This piastre was struck under his nephew Ludovico Ludovisi, appointed Cardinal Legate of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin, the papal enclave embedded within southern France that remained under Roman jurisdiction until the Revolution forcibly annexed it in 1791.

Ludovisi's legation was largely administrative, but the coinage it produced is numismatically distinct from the Roman series — a separate mint authority operating under the same pope.