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1 Thaler - Francesco d'Este
| Issuer | Marquisate of Massa Lombarda (Italian States) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1550-1578 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | MIR EM#433, Dav EC I#8298, CNI X#4 |
| Obverse description | Draped and cuirassed bust of Francesco d'Este facing right, depicted with curled hair and ruffled collar, within a beaded inner circle. A small flowering plant device appears beneath the truncation of the bust. The peripheral legend in Latin runs along the outer margin between the beaded circle and the coin's irregular hammered edge. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Francesco d'Este ruled Massa Lombarda as a minor lord operating in the long shadow of the Este dynasty's Ferrara branch, and his decision to strike thalers in the German weight standard — rather than the Italian scudo format more natural to the region — almost certainly reflects deliberate positioning toward transalpine trade networks. The Marquisate was tiny, its monetary output negligible, and surviving examples from this reign are genuinely rare in any condition.
Dav EC I#8298 places this squarely within the broader corpus of north Italian thaler-format issues assembled by Davenport, a category notorious for small series struck more for prestige and political signaling than for sustained commercial circulation.