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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 
210, Lot: 424. Estimate $200.
Sold for $120. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Papal Medals. Pius VI (Giovanni Angelo Braschi). 1775-1799. Æ Medal (50mm, 57.75 g, 12h). Dated 1779. PIVS · SEXTVS · PONTIFEX · MAXIMVS ·, bust right, wearing zucchetta, mozzetta, and pallium and raising hand in benediction; star stops / Legend in ten lines. Mazio 516; Lincoln 1956-7; Patrignani 29. Choice EF.


From the Luparello Collection. Ex Coin Galleries (19 February 2002), lot 1164.

Economic and political upheaval dominated the later part of Pius VI’s pontificate, a native of Cesena. In 1791, he condemned the establishment of France’s state church and later lost its northern provinces to the French. In 1798, French forces marched upon Rome and captured the pope, holding him prisoner in Drôme until his death six weeks later. Though embalmed, he was not buried until early in 1800 in an effort by Napoleon to warm the relations between France and the Catholic Church. Ultimately, his body was removed from its burial place in Valance and reburied at Rome.