1/2 Gigliato - Galeazzo Maria Sforza

The Mahona di Chio was a private trading consortium — not a state — that administered Chios under Genoese authority from 1347 until the Ottoman conquest in 1566. Its coinage was issued under the nominal authority of whoever held the ducal title in Milan, which is why Galeazzo Maria Sforza's name appears here despite his having no direct governance over the island. The arrangement was essentially a licensed monopoly, with the mastic trade funding everything from garrison wages to mint operations.

The half gigliato denomination served local Aegean commerce, circulating alongside Byzantine and Ottoman issues in a monetarily promiscuous environment where origin mattered less than silver content.