(sold for $38.0)

1768, Naples, Ferdinand IV & Maria Carolina. Silver Medallic "Wedding" Carlino. VF-

Mint Year: 1768 Reference: Ricardi 25, D'Auria 27. Condition: Pierced (probably worn as a pendant), scratches, otherwise VF! Denomination: Jetton / Medallic Carlino - Struck for the wedding of Ferdinand IV of Bourbon and Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria. Probably thrown out to the public during the wedding festivities! Diameter: 21mm Material: Silver  Weight: 1.9gm

Obverse: Draped bust of Queen Maria Carolina right, Legend: M CAR A FERD IV UTR SICI RE NVPTA   Reverse: Hymen and Amor flanking  altar, on which rest the knotted shields of the Bourbons and the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Legend: FORTIVS ALTERNIS NEXIBVS

Maria Carolina of Austria (Maria Karolina Luise Josepha Johanna Antonia; 13 August 1752 – 8 September 1814) was Queen of Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Ferdinand IV & III. As de facto ruler of her husband's kingdoms, Maria Carolina oversaw the promulgation of many reforms, including the revocation of the ban on Freemasonry, the enlargement of the navy under her favourite, John Acton, 6th Baronet, and the expulsion of Spanish influence. She was a proponent of enlightened absolutism until the advent of the French Revolution, when, in order to prevent its ideas gaining currency, she made Naples a police state.

Born an Austrian archduchess, the thirteenth child of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I, she married Ferdinand as part of an Austrian alliance with Spain, where Ferdinand's father was king. Following the birth of a male heir in 1775, Maria Carolina was admitted to the Privy Council. Thereafter, she dominated it until 1812, when she was sent back to Vienna. Like her mother, Maria Carolina took pains to make politically advantageous marriages for her children. Maria Carolina promoted Naples as a centre of the arts, patronising painters Jacob Philipp Hackert and Angelica Kauffman and academics Gaetano Filangieri, Domenico Cirillo and Giuseppe Maria Galanti. Maria Carolina, abhorring how the French treated their queen, her sister Marie Antoinette, allied Naples with Britain and Austria during the Napoleonic and French Revolutionary Wars. As a result of a failed Neapolitan invasion of French-occupied Rome, she fled to Sicily with her husband in December 1798. One month later, the Parthenopean Republic was declared, which repudiated Bourbon rule in Naples for six months. Deposed as Queen of Naples for a second time by French forces, in 1806, Maria Carolina died in Vienna in 1814, a year before her husband's restoration to Naples.

Ferdinand I (Ferdinando Antonio Pasquale Giovanni Nepomuceno Serafino GennaroBenedetto, January 12, 1751 – January 4, 1825) was King variously of Naples, Sicily, and the Two Sicilies from 1759 until his death. He was the third son of King Charles VII of Naples, later Charles III of Spain, King of Sicily by his wife Maria Amalia of Saxony. On August 10, 1759, Charles succeeded his brother as King Charles III of Spain. Treaty provisions made Charles unable to hold the titles of all three Kingdoms. On October 6, 1759 he therefore abdicated in favour of his son Ferdinand (Charles's eldest son, Philip, was mentally retarded and the second son, Charles, was destined to inherit the Spanish throne).

Ferdinand was styled both Ferdinand III of Sicily (October 6, 1759 - December 8, 1816) and Ferdinand IV of Naples (October 6, 1759 - January 23, 1799; June 13, 1799 - March 30, 1806; May 3, 1815 - December 8, 1816).

On January 23, 1799, the Kingdom of Naples was declared to be abolished and replaced by the Parthenopaean Republic which only lasted until June 13, 1799. Ferdinand was restored to the throne for a while. On December 26, 1805, Napoleon I of France declared Ferdinand deposed again and replaced him with his own brother Joseph Bonaparte on March 30, 1806. Ferdinand was restored for a third time by right of the Austrian victory at the Battle of Tolentino (May 3, 1815) over rival monarch King Joachim I. On December 8, 1816 he merged the thrones of Sicily and Naples to the throne of the Two Sicilies. He continued to rule until his death on January 4, 1825. However, his reign up until 1812 was mainly dominated by his wife.

Maria Carolina of Austria (German: Maria Karolina von Österreich; Italian: Maria Carolina d'Austria; 13 August 1752 – 8 September 1814), born Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria (German: Erzherzogin Maria Karolina von Österreich), and later becoming Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Sicily (Italian: Maria Carolina, Regina di Napoli e di Sicilia) was queen consort and de facto ruler of Naples from 1768 to 1799 and from 1799 to 1806, and of Sicily from 1768 until her death in 1814, though she had lost the de facto power in 1812. She was born an Austrian Archduchess and was a sister of Queen Marie Antoinette of France.

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