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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;princeofwaldo, post: 4788543, member: 24091&quot;]From the Stack&#039;s auction at the Bellegio a couple weeks ago...&nbsp; I love coins with a story, and this one really has a story.</p><p><br /></p><p>Piastre of Francesco I de&#039; Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany aka Davenport-8386.&nbsp; Population 1/0 finer at PCGS.&nbsp;&nbsp; Reverse depicts Christ over the River Jordan.</p><p><br /></p><p>First machine struck silver crown in Florence, very high tech for its day.</p><p><br /></p><p>Interesting guy Francesco, likely off&#039;d his Austrian wife to elope with his Venetian mistress Bianca Cappello, who likely off&#039;d her husband just prior to marrying Francesco.&nbsp; They eventually died a day apart and historians have argued ever since if they were poisoned or died from malaria.</p><p><br /></p><p>The art collection at the Uffizi and Pitti Palace?&nbsp; All of it belonged to Francesco, though the Uffizi itself dates to his father and the Pitti Palace much earlier.</p><p><br /></p><p>There is a hotel in Florence called the Palazzo Bianca Cappello where the future duchess lived while waiting for the Duke to become &quot;available&quot;. A street view pic of it below.&nbsp; It&#039;s about 2 blocks from the Guicciardini where I stayed last summer in Florence (pic of our room there), south side of the Arno near Pitti Palace.&nbsp; If I ever go back, might have to spend a night at Francesco&#039;s love nest...,,.,</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1164016[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1164017[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1164018[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1164019[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1164024[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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