The Ducal Palace Museum in Mantua has enriched its collection with a singular object: a gold coin of the Papal States minted in the Gonzaga territory. The specimen, preserved and now on display in the Camera di Bacco, offers material evidence of a crucial moment in the history of Mantua and the Gonzaga family.
The coin dates back to the Diet convened by Pope Pius II Piccolomini, which began on June 1, 1459 and ended on January 14 of the following year with the promulgation of the bull Ecclesiam Christi, which banned war against the Turks for three years after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. During the Diet, the papal Curia established its residence in Mantua, housed in the rooms of Corte Vecchia, probably near the Pisanello Hall. In the meantime, Marquis Ludovico II Gonzaga and Barbara of Brandenburg moved to the Castle and decided to remain there once the work of the Council, which brought representatives from all of Catholic Europe to the city, was concluded. The Council, however, did not achieve the desired results: the pope received lukewarm responses regarding a new crusade and, as evidenced by his Epistle ad Mahumetem of 1461, sought utopian solutions, such as inviting Sultan Muhammad II to convert to Christianity through a symbolic baptism.
During his stay in Mantua, Pius II maintained the pomp of the Curia, employing artists and also commissioning the minting of coins, as was customary in Rome. A warrant for payment, dated January 18, 1460 and preserved among Vatican documents, confirms the rental of a house used to mint coins in favor of Mantuan Bartolomeo Della Fera. Florentine goldsmith Andrea Begno, master of the papal mint, followed the pope on the trip to Mantua and handled the minting. The gold ducat shows on the obverse the inscription “PIVS PAPA SECVNDVS,” while on the reverse, instead of the usual inscription “ALMA ROMA,” appears “DIETE MANTOVA,” emphasizing the direct link with the city Diet. Palazzo Ducale acquired the coin in 2025 through the Verona-based auction house Nomisma. As of March 18, 2026, the piece will be on view in theAppartamento della Rustica, in the Camera di Bacco, where a section dedicated to the coin cabinet and medal collection of the Ducal Palace, recently the subject of an in-depth study, has been set up.
“The coin is listed in numismatics repertories with the initials RRR, that is, as an extremely rare piece: it is also missing from the Magnaguti collection, currently on display in the Ducal Palace,” says Stefano L’Occaso, director of the Ducal Palace in Mantua. “It is the only coin of the Papal States minted in Mantua over the centuries, and its obvious historical importance more than makes up for the less than excellent state of preservation of the specimen purchased by the Ducal Palace. Our coin has been sheared in ancient times: its profile has been filed to remove some of its gold. It weighs 3.08 gr. compared to about 3.50 gr. for the newly minted, undamaged coin.”
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| Mantua, Ducal Palace acquires the only gold coin of the Papal States minted in the city of the Gonzagas |
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