½ Scudo – Papal States

In 1717, the Papal States found themselves in a precarious monetary situation, a legacy of prolonged financial strain. The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) had drained the papal treasury, forcing Pope Clement XI to resort to severe fiscal measures, including the debasement of coinage. The silver scudo, the cornerstone of the state's currency, had been progressively reduced in precious metal content to fund military and diplomatic efforts. This created a chaotic monetary environment where newer, inferior coins circulated alongside older, purer ones, leading to widespread confusion, hoarding of good coin, and a loss of public trust in the currency.

The core problem was a classic "bad money drives out good" scenario (Gresham's Law). The papal mint in Rome struggled to maintain a stable standard, while various provincial mints operated with differing levels of oversight, further fragmenting the monetary system. Furthermore, a vast quantity of foreign coins, particularly Spanish silver pieces of eight, circulated within the states, often preferred for their reliable intrinsic value. This undermined the papal government's monetary sovereignty and complicated trade. The situation was exacerbated by a general shortage of bullion, a Europe-wide issue, making it difficult to mint new, high-quality coinage without resorting to further debasement.

Pope Clement XI and his Camera Apostolica (treasury) recognized the crisis. Efforts at reform were attempted, including calls for the recall and re-minting of debased coinage, but these were hampered by a lack of sufficient bullion reserves and the immense cost such an operation would entail. The monetary instability of 1717 was, therefore, a symptom of deeper fiscal weakness. It would not be decisively addressed until the more comprehensive reforms of Pope Benedict XIII later in the 1720s, who, with the help of Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, initiated a painful but necessary recall and re-coinage to restore the integrity of the papal scudo.