(sold for $202.0)

1697, Livorno (Tuscany), Cosimo III de' Medici. Silver 1/2 Pezza Della Rosa Coin.

Mint Year: 1697 Mint Place: Livorno Ruler (Duke): Cosimo III de' Medici State: Livorno (province of Tuscany) Denomination: 1/2 Pezza Della Rosa (1/2 Tollero)    Reference: Galeotti LI/1, CNI 44, KM-31 ($1000 in Fine!)  Condition: Lightly deformed, cleaned, with minor deposits, otherwise a nice VF!  Weight: 12.75gm Diameter: 33mm Material: Silver

Obverse: A brush of blooming roses. Inscription ("LIBVRNI") below. Legend: GRATIA OBVIA VLTIO QVAESITA * LIBVRNI *

Reverse: Crowned coat-of-arms of the House of Medici within foliage. Date (1697) in legend below. Legend: COSMVS . III . D . G . M . DVX . ETRVRIAE . 1697 .

The Medici family, one of the leading families in Europe for over four hundred years, ends with Giovanni Gaston. He had no heirs and was unable to provide for his succession. Thus, in 1738, the Grand Duchy of Florence becomes attached to the House of Austria.

The Province of Livorno or Leghorn (Italian: Provincia di Livorno) is a province in the Tuscany region of Italy. It includes several islands of the Tuscan Archipelago, including Elba and Capraia. Its capital is the city of Livorno.

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Cosimo III de' Medici (14 August 1642 – 31 October 1723) was the penultimate Grand Duke of Tuscany. He reigned from 1670 to 1723, and was the elder son of Grand Duke Ferdinando II.   Cosimo's 53-year long reign, the longest in Tuscan history, was marked   by a series of ultra-reactionary laws which regulated prostitution and   banned May celebrations. His reign also witnessed Tuscany's   deterioration to previously unknown economic lows. He was succeeded by   his elder surviving son, Gian Gastone, when he died, in 1723.

He married Marguerite Louise d'Orléans, a cousin of Louis XIV. It was a marriage fraught with tribulation. Marguerite Louise eventually abandoned Tuscany for the Convent of Montmartre. Together, they had 3 children: Ferdinando in 1663, Anna Maria Luisa, Electress Palatine, in 1667, and Gian Gastone, the last Medicean ruler of Tuscany, in 1671.

In later life, he attempted to have Anna Maria Luisa recognised as the universal heiress of Tuscany, but Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor,   would not allow it because Florence was nominally an imperial fief, and   he felt he alone could alter the Tuscan laws of succession. All   Cosimo's efforts to salvage the plan floundered, and in 1737, upon his   younger son's death, Tuscany passed to the House of Lorraine.