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Cosimo I de' Medici, subsequent to his conquest of power and after being nominated duke in 1537, strove to increment the Florentine economy through the creation of a modernized monetary system. A new scudo bearing the Medici arms substituted the previous one, and the gold piastra, valued ten scudi, was coined perhaps more for reasons of prestige than for commercial needs. The piastra shown here is an example of the second minting of the coin, with the right profile of Cosimo dressed in armor on the obverse and a decorated cross on the reverse.
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