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1/4 Scudo - Agostino Spinola
| Issuer | Tassarolo, County of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1607-1610 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Orientation | Coin alignment ↑↓ |
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| Obverse description | Armored bust of Agostino Spinola facing right, wearing a ruff collar and pauldron, depicted in the Renaissance courtly manner. The effigy is set within the coin's field with a circular beaded border. The circumferential Latin legend reads AVGVSTINVS SPIN COMES TASS, identifying the issuer as Count of Tassarolo. The portrait is rendered in a bold, high-relief style characteristic of early seventeenth-century Italian hammered coinage. |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | AVGVSTINVS SPIN COMES TASS |
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| Additional information |
Tassarolo was among the smallest fiefs in the Ligurian Apennines, a county held by a branch of the Spinola family — one of Genoa's great alberghi — whose members simultaneously served as bankers, generals, and imperial clients of the Spanish Habsburgs. Agostino Spinola received the right to strike coinage as part of the dense web of imperial concessions dispensed by Rudolf II, which granted dozens of minor Italian lords nominal monetary authority they rarely had the infrastructure to fully exercise.
Output from Tassarolo was modest enough that many denominations survive in tiny numbers today.