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Charles V

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Camerino lies in the Apennines south of Urbino and was surrounded by the Papal States. In 1444, Giulio Cesare da Verano came to govern the dominion of Camerino as a fief of the Papal States. In 1502 Cesare Borgia had him assassinated in order to establish his own duchy in Romagna. Camerino was the seat of a mint 1444-1545.

Location of Camerino on the map of Italy at 1499

Giovanni Maria da Varano, Lord of Camerino since 1503, Duke 1515-1527 He was born the son of Giulio Cesare da Varano in 1481. After the fall of the Borgias, Pope Julius II returned Camerino to him in 1503. In 1515 Pope Leo X elevated Giovanni Maria da Varano to Duke of Camerino. In 1520 he married Caterina Cybo (1501-1557). Their daughter Giulia succeeded to the duchy of Camerino after Giovanni's death in 1527. Ducato n. d. (1515).    Ø 22 mm, 3,44 g.  CNI XIII 229/10; RM III 364/1; Friedb.147. Obv.:   +IO·MARIA·CAMERINI·DVX  -  Barhäuptige Büste nach rechts. Rev.:   +LEO·X·PONT·M - AX·DECORAVIT  -  "Papst Leo X. hat dekoriert" Coat of arms of Verano, under a ducal crown. The solemn elevation to a dukedom on 30 April 1515 was the occasion for this commemorative coin. The coat of arms of Verano consists of a multi-rowed "vair", a heraldic imitation of a fur, made from pieces of the greyish-blue backs of squirrels sewn together with pieces of the animals' white underbellies. Quattrino n. d.     Ø 20 mm, 2,51 g.   CNI XIII 233/46; RM III 364/2. Specimen from Collezione di Vittorio Emanuele III, BnN Materiali 50 (2017) p.73. Obv.:   IO·MARIA·VARANVS·CAMERINI·D[?]  -  Bust to the right, with long hair and cap. Rev.:   DISTINGVE·ET·CONCORDABIS   "Distinguish and agree"  -  Verano arms without crown. Similar to the following, but bust facing the other side. Quattrino n. d.     Ø 20 mm, 1,50 g.   CNI XIII 234/51; RM III 365/3. Obv.:   ⚛IO MARIA VARANVS CAMERINI·  -  Bust to the left, with long hair and cap. Rev.:   ⚛DISTINGVE ET CONCORDABIS  -  Verano arms without crown. The quattrinos could have been produced before the ducat (youthful portrait and uncrowned coat of arms). CNI and RM usually see a D at the end of the legend of the obverse (D = Dux?).

Giulia da Verano, duchessa di Camerino 1527-1534 When Giovanni Maria Varano died in 1527, his heiress daughter Giulia took over the duchy at the age of 4 years under the regency of her mother, who promised Giulia in marriage to Guidobaldo II della Rovere in 1535. Pope Paul III, who would preferred to see his grandson Ottavio Farnese as Giulias husband, forced the relinquishment of the duchy as an ecclesiastical fiefdom with excommunication in exchange for a settlement of 78,000 scudi. In 1542 Guidobaldo II della Rovere, then already Duke of Urbino, also renounced Camerino. After Giulia's death in 1547 Guidobaldo married a sister of Ottavio Farnese (now at the pleasure of Pope Paul III, who had in the meantime obtained the marriage of his grandson Ottavio Farnese to the Emperor's daughter Margaret of Parma). Scudo d'oro o. J.     Ø 22 mm, 3,45 g.   CNI XIII p.244 n.1var.; RM III 366/1; Friedb.148. Obv.:   IVLIA·DE·VARANO·CAM·DVX  -  Bust to the left. Rev.:   +CLEMENTIS·VII·CLEMENTIA  -  Wappen von Verano unter Herzogskrone. In 1639-1645 the mint in Camerino minted under the name of Pope Paul III. Coins minted in Rome in 1641-45 also bear the title "Octavius Farnese, Duke of Camerino". Compare the portrait by Titian, ca. 1545, preserved in Palazzo Pitti (Florence), shown by Wikipedia .

Ref.:   [Quotations with indication of volume, page and number e.g.  III 87,6 = vol.3 p.87 no.6] • Corpus Nummorum Italicorum [CNI]: Camerino in vol. XIII   -   CNI-Index • Ravegnani Morosini, Mario [RM]: Signorie e principati - monete italiane con ritratto, 1450-1796 vol.III, 1984

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