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1 Ducat - Scipione Gonzaga
| Issuer | Duchy of Bozzolo |
|---|---|
| Year | 1639 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Orientation | Coin alignment ↑↓ |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Bozzolo was a tiny Imperial fief in Lombardy, and by 1639 the Gonzaga cadet branch ruling it was operating on borrowed time — the main Mantuan line had been devastated by the War of Mantuan Succession (1628–1631) and the plague that followed. Scipione Gonzaga, as a minor sovereign lord, retained the right to strike gold coinage, a privilege the family defended jealously as one of the few remaining markers of genuine princely status.
The duchy itself covered only a handful of square miles. That a gold ducat of this quality emerged from such a diminished principality in its final decades makes the issue historically anomalous.