Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 1684. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $4500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Papal States. Clement XI. 1700-1721. AR Half Piastra (16.01 gm, 12h). Rome mint; Ermenegildo Hamerani, sculptor. Dated 1705, year 5. CLEMENS*XI PONT*M*A*V*, garnished Albani coat-of-arms; •E• •H• below / *CIVITAS*VRBINI*, city view with cathedral, fortifications, farmer and dam; date and d'Asta coat-of-arms in exergue. CNI XIII (Urbino) pg. 575, 5; Muntoni III pg. 83, 52; Berman 2387. Good VF, choice old collection toning. Very rare. ($5000)

Ex Owen Parsons Collection (Baldwins 12, 27 May 1997), lot 1177

A scholar and effective functionary in papal offices, cardinal Giovanni Albani was reluctant to accept the papacy when elected to it. He finally acceded when his confessor, Joseph Tommasi, declared it would be a mortal sin to dispute the decision of the college of cardinals. One of Clement's first acts was to elevate an equally reluctant Tommasi to cardinal. Clement's apprehensions were vindicated during the War of the Spanish Succession, when he proved powerless to influence events, and papal territories in Sardinia, Sicily and elsewhere in Italy were lost to the warring parties. This splendid civic view coin celebrates the pontiff's birthplace of Urbino.