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Quadruple Gold Ecu - Urban VIII Anthony Barberini Legate
| Issuer | Comtat Venaissin |
|---|---|
| Year | 1637-1644 |
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| Reference(s) | KM#58, Fr#59, Munt#208, Dy féodales#1987, PA#4400 |
| Obverse description | Draped bust of Pope Urban VIII facing right, set within a beaded inner circle. The papal effigy is rendered in high relief with fine drapery detail characteristic of the period. Below the truncation, a small Sforza escutcheon flanked by the Barberini heraldic bees appears in the field. The surrounding legend, separated from the central device by the beaded border, carries the pontifical title and regnal date in capital Latin letters. |
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| Reverse description | The ornate quartered arms of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, as Apostolic Legate of Avignon, are displayed centrally, surmounted by a cardinal's galero with pendant tassels. A cross of Malta overlies the shield, its four arms extending into the field. The entire heraldic composition is enclosed within a beaded circle, with the legate's title and name inscribed in the surrounding legend in Latin capital letters. |
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| Additional information |
The Comtat Venaissin, a papal enclave embedded within Provence, minted under the authority of its legates rather than the pope directly — a jurisdictional distinction that makes these issues legally and numismatically distinct from Vatican coinage. Antonio Barberini the Elder, nephew of Urban VIII, served as legate from 1629 and presided over one of the enclave's more productive minting periods. The Barberini family's political ambitions during this decade were considerable, and the heavy gold multiples struck at Avignon reflect that appetite for conspicuous ecclesiastical authority.
The .986 fineness places this among the purest gold coinages of mid-seventeenth-century Europe.