The ducat was the main currency of the

Kingdom of the Two Sicilies The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ( it, Regno delle Due Sicilie) was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1860. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and size in Italy before Italian unification, comprising Sicily and a ...

between 1816 and 1860. When the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

created the kingdom merging the

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...

and the

Kingdom of Sicily The Kingdom of Sicily ( la, Regnum Siciliae; it, Regno di Sicilia; scn, Regnu di Sicilia) was a state that existed in the south of the Italian Peninsula and for a time the region of Ifriqiya from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 un ...

, the ducat became at par a continuation of the Neapolitan ducat and the Sicilian piastra issued prior to 1816, although the Sicilian piastra had been subdivided into 240 grana. In the mainland part of the kingdom, the ducat also replaced the Napoleonic

lira Lira is the name of several currency units. It is the current currency of Turkey and also the local name of the currencies of Lebanon and of Syria. It is also the name of several former currencies, including those of Italy, Malta and Israe ...

. The subdivision and the coinage of the currency were simplified with respect to the pre-Napoleonic era: only three denominations survived. The

ducat The ducat () coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages from the 13th to 19th centuries. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wi ...

proper was the name of the gold coins, and curiously it did not exist as a single unit; the grana (

singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular homology * SINGULAR, an open source Computer Algebra System (CAS) * Singular or sounder, a group of boar, ...

: ''grano'') was the name of the silver coins, itself also not existing as a single unit; the tornesel ( Italian: ''tornese'') was the name of the copper coins, which were worth half a ''grana''. Accounts were kept in ducats, each of 100 grana or 200 tornesels.">
''A Handbook for Travellers in Southern Italy ''(1868) The piastra was the unofficial name of the biggest silver coin, which had a value of 120 grana. When the

Italian lira The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually f ...

replaced the coinage of the House of Bourbon in 1861, a rate of 1 piastra = 5.1 lire was established.

Coins

Copper coins were issued in denominations of , 1, , 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 10 tornesels, together with silver 5, 10, 20, 60 and 120 grana coins, the largest being unofficially called piastra. Gold coins were issued for 3, 6, 15 and 30 ducats.

References

* {{refend Currencies of Italy Kingdom of the Two Sicilies Modern obsolete currencies Sicilies 1860 disestablishments 19th-century economic history 1816 establishments in Italy