1 Ducat - Paolo Besso Ferrero-Fieschi

The Ferrero-Fieschi family held Masserano as an imperial fief under Spanish suzerainty, a precarious arrangement that gave them the right to strike coinage but left them perpetually vulnerable to the ambitions of Savoy pressing from the west. Paolo Besso ruled during the Thirty Years' War, when small north Italian lordships like Masserano mattered chiefly as corridors for Spanish troop movements along the so-called "Spanish Road" connecting Milan to the Low Countries. That military geography made even minor minting rights politically significant.

Ducats from Masserano across this period are scarce survivors — the principality's output was never large, and few examples circulated far beyond the immediate region.