- Description
- Specifications
| ID Number: | MC04-0303 |
| Description: | 5 Quattrini |
| Country or State: | Granducato di Toscana (GRAND DUCHY OF TUSCANY) |
| Year: | 1830 |
| Head of State/Ruler: | Leopoldo II di Lorena (Full Name: Leopoldo Giovanni Giuseppe Francesco Ferdinando Carlo) |
| Reign: | 18 June 1824 – 21 July 1859 |
| Currency: | Quattrini |
| Obverse: | Crowned shield above denomination |
| Obverse Legend: | GRAND · DI · TOSC · LEOP II · A · D'A |
| Reverse: | Value above date |
| Reverse Legend: | 5 QUATTRINI 1830 |
| Edge: | Plain |
| Composition: | Billon |
| Diameter: | 23.50 mm |
| Weight: | 3.8900 grams |
| Catalog Number: | C# 65; Gigante: 72; Pagani: 174 |
|
Leopold II of Tuscany was the last reigning grand duke of Tuscany (1824–1859). The Grand Duke was briefly deposed by a provisional government in 1849, only to be restored the same year with the assistance of Austrian troops, who occupied the state until 1855. Leopold attempted to pursue a policy of neutrality in the Second Italian War of Independence, but found himself expelled by a bloodless coup on April 27, 1859, just before the beginning of the war. The Grand Ducal family left for Bologna, in Papal territory. Tuscany was occupied by Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia for the duration of the conflict. The preliminary peace of Villafranca, agreed to between Napoleon III and Franz Joseph on July 11, provided for the return of the Lorraines to Florence, but Leopold himself was seen as too unpopular to be accepted, so on 21 July 1859 he abdicated the throne in favour of his son, Ferdinand. Ferdinand was not, however, any more acceptable to the revolutionaries in control at Florence, and his accession was not proclaimed. Instead, the provisional government proclaimed the deposition of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. |
