1 Cavallotto - Guglielmo IX Paleologo

Guglielmo IX ruled Montferrat for over two decades as a marquis perpetually caught between the competing pressures of France and Milan — his political survival depended on careful neutrality during the Italian Wars that erupted after Charles VIII's invasion of 1494. The cavallotto denomination itself was a northern Italian regional type, its name derived from the horse imagery traditional to the Paleologi of Montferrat, a dynasty that had held the marquisate since 1306 through a cadet branch of the Byzantine imperial family.

The CNI II#52 var. attribution signals a die variation not fully catalogued at time of publication — Biaggi#64a provides the more precise reference for this specific emission.