The armor was very expensive. People who wanted to buy an armor had to be rich. The price of a Milanese type armor, which was made for Ferdinand I in 1559, was 2400 Italian crowns, which was, at the time, an equivalent to 59 years worth of salary of a master builder.
The complete armors came out of use in the late sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, but until the eighteenth century one could find them among the equipment of nobles and the commanding class. This was an expression of the desire to preserve privileges, dignities and distinctiveness which nobility began to lose in favor of increasingly wealthy bourgeoise.
The era of historicism brought about the reminiscence and awakening of "old memories" of chivalrous times of lordship and power. The nobility created collections of old weapons, armor and battle gear, either by purchasing original examples or by purchasing copies and imitations. Sometimes, the copies were very expensive masterpieces. The interior of castles and palaces was decorated with such weapons.